Alluring Lullaby
by Digitallace
Summary: DM/HP slash. AU Dirty Fairytale. Nobleman Draco Malfoy stumbles onto a faerie glade and his life changes when he meets a Nix named Harry. Written as a request by my dear reviewer Chris Imagination444
1. A Chance Encounter

Authors Note: I got a new request from a new reader (and excellent reviewer) Imagination444. The request was for a fic where Harry is a Nix, and I was even provided with a scene, which you will find modified here. I hope you all enjoy, and look out for the next chapter.

A Chance Encounter

"Lord Malfoy, how good of you to visit," the scrawny store clerk called out. He had been in the middle of fitting another man for a suit, but dropped his tape measure and bustled over to greet Draco the moment he walked through the door.

Draco dusted off his jacket and removed his hat, placing it carefully on the rack by the door. "Tidwell, I'm needing to purchase four new suits and a set of dress robes," Draco called out. "What new fabrics have arrived?"

Tidwell rushed to the counter and pulled out several sample books and laid them out in front of Lord Malfoy. He knew from experience what the man usually liked, so he immediately flipped to the green and gray swatches.

"Perfect. I'll take one of each of these," he began, pointing to a set of expensive sage green silks and silvery gray brocade patterns. "The dress robes need to be unique though. I am to finally meet Pansy," he boasted.

It was common knowledge among the town that the only child and heir of the Malfoy estate was promised to the daughter of another prestigious wizarding family, the Parkinson's. Their daughter had been raised much like Draco, home tutored in the ways of magic and how to live as a proper pureblood in a world where wizards were the minority.

Unlike Draco, however, Pansy never left her estate, and no one outside her family and their house elves had ever set eyes upon her. Rumors flew that she was a hideous monster, but Tidwell never listened to gossip, and seriously doubted that Draco's parents would inflict such a fate upon their beautiful child.

For Draco _was_ beautiful.

He turned heads wherever he went, his pristine blonde hair was pin straight and flowed elegantly over his shoulders, but was usually pulled back with a thick black ribbon. His skin was pale and almost luminescent, and his features were sharp and haughty, befitting that of a noble pureblood wizard. Thanks to Tidwell, he was always in the height of fashion and everything he wore fit him like a glove, showing off his fit body to the best of its ability.

"Here are some designs I've been working on, sir. Is there anything here that you like?" he asked. He had to stay always prepared for a visit from Draco, as the boy never made an appointment, and was known to make odd demands, but pay handsomely for them.

His arctic gray eyes scanned over the parchment, eventually flicking between the final two. "I like this one, but with this collar," he said, pointing at the last two drawings. "What colors do you suggest?" he asked.

Tidwell felt alight with honor at being asked his opinion by the most sought after man in all of England. "Well sir, I think you have fine taste, and the colors you usually choose suit your coloring perfectly, but might I suggest this," he said, offering a large swatch of sapphire blue brushed satin with quilted pleats and icy blue brocade trim.

Draco nodded and a subtle smirk pulled at the corners of his mouth. "This is perfect, Tidwell. Brilliant as always," he said.

Tidwell beamed and began scribbling down the order. Draco set a black velvet pouch on the counter and Tidwell knew there would be more than enough galleons to cover the cost of the five garments ordered today. There was probably even enough to cover the possibility of his previous customer, who was still waiting for Tidwell to return, walking out in frustration.

He looked up to thank Draco, but his shop was already empty of the lord's presence. It was a common thing for Draco to make such a swift transaction, which is why Tidwell managed to keep his patronage over the years. Other vendors tried, but often failed to live up to the Malfoy family's expectations.

They were the most important family in England, maybe even the world, and they thought they deserved to be treated as such. It was a view most wizards didn't agree with, but Tidwell, heavy moneybag in hand, agreed wholeheartedly.

--

Narcissa met Draco at the door when he arrived home from his trip to Diagon Alley. She took his hat and cloak and led him into the study, where his father awaited him. He sat in the chair across from his father and his mother stood in the doorway, as if preventing an escape.

"Draco, my son," Lucius began, and Draco knew at his fathers tone that he was in for a lecture. "Pansy will be arriving in one weeks time. Have you prepared everything as I've instructed?"

"Yes father. The final thing on my list were the dress robes for the welcoming ball, and I ordered those today," he replied.

"The ring?" his father asked.

Draco took the small velvet box from his pocket, opening it to reveal a stunning emerald engagement ring. The stone was five carats and flawless nestled amongst several smaller pave diamonds that made a trailing vine pattern down the setting.

His father raised a delicate blonde eyebrow in startled amusement. "You keep it with you?"

"I trust myself to keep it safe," Draco answered with a nod.

Lucius sighed and shook his head lightly in disapproval but surprisingly said nothing to demean his son's choice. "After the wedding, your mother and I will be vacating the main part of the manor and will reside exclusively in the west wing. The household and the accounts will all be transferred to your name, and you will be the sole executioner to the Malfoy fortune. I hope you understand the weight of that responsibility."

Draco exhaled the breath he had been holding and nodded. He knew this day was coming. From the moment he had turned seventeen he knew that one day this would all be under his control, he just didn't expect it to be so soon. "I understand, father."

"It is of the utmost importance that you produce and heir, and quickly. The longer our family is without an heir, the larger the target we become. Many pureblood families would kill to be in our position, and they certainly wouldn't blink at killing _us_," Lucius said.

He knew this too, it had been drilled into his head for almost twenty years now, but Draco still nodded his acceptance.

"Very well. I shall see you at dinner, son. Enjoy the rest of your afternoon," he said and offered as much of a smile as Draco had ever seen from his father.

"Thank you, sir," Draco replied and exited his father's office.

His mother caught up with him on his way down the corridor and steered him toward the back garden. It was the dead of autumn, and the only flowers that were left were the hearty ones like the orange chrysanthemums, and the pale pink stonecrop that bordered several of the large beds. Draco's personal favorites though, were the goldenrod the bloomed wild at the forest edge.

He tried to avoid the forest as much as possible though. His father had warned him since he was a child that the forest held ancient magic and creatures that Draco had no experience with, so it was best that he just stay away. Someone with noble and pureblood like himself needn't go traipsing through the woods anyway.

"Draco," his mother began once they were a good deal further into the garden than Draco usually ventured. "Are you nervous?" she asked.

Draco laughed, but the smile on his face never reached his sparkling gray eyes. "I'm scared witless, mother," he replied in all honesty.

She smiled prettily and ran her fingers through her son's hair. "Everything will be okay," she assured. "You're father and I might be relegated to the west wing, but we'll still be here if you need us."

"I know, mother. I just…" his sentence trailed off as he didn't know the right words to complete his thoughts.

"You know, your father and I had an arranged marriage. Things have not always been easy, but I love your father and he loves me. You will learn to love your new wife, and no one could resist your charms," she told him, her voice soft and soothing. "And then, when you have a son of your own… why Draco, you will never know joy such as that," she added, a single tear escaping her perfect eyes.

Draco smiled and kissed his mother delicately on the cheek. "Thank you, mother."

His parents, though they looked so similar they could be siblings instead of husband and wife, were polar opposites. His father was cold and calculating and his mother was warm and sensitive. If two people as different as his own parents could love each other, then he shouldn't have any problems with Pansy.

He watched as Narcissa floated back into the house, her ice blue gown trailing after her. He was near the edge of the garden, and he rarely came out this far without the purpose of seeking potion ingredients.

It was peaceful and quiet, not even the birds were whistling or the trees rustling. Since he was already so close, he made his way down to the forest edge; flicking his hand down to gather several stems of the goldenrod he so loved. He didn't know why this wildflower always caught his attention, but something about it seemed to draw him near.

He had just gathered enough to create a lovely bouquet for his mother when he heard the sound.

It was light at first, but then grew more potent as he walked into the fringe of the wood, careful not to stray too far into it. The music sounded like an orchestral violin, but more powerful and intoxicating than Draco had ever heard before.

He had to seek it out, had to find and harness the sound for himself. Surely, one brief trip into the wood to find the source of that beautiful melody wouldn't hurt.

Leaves of gold, umber and crimson fell lazily around him as they made a silent decent from their homes in the canopy. The setting sun shone through the fading trees, flashing against the crisp autumn leaves and casting dappled light of red and gold along the forest floor.

All the while the music folded around him like a lover's arms, pulling him deeper and deeper into the wood. The light around him slowly faded and his home could no longer be seen through the trees, at this point, Draco normally would have panicked except the enchanting music filling his ears assured him he would be fine.

But then it stopped.

It was abrupt and it felt as though it had been torn violently from his mind. He looked around in a daze, unsure of where he was, the light still catching on random golden leaves and sending glittering beams all around him.

A slight movement caught his eye, a lithe form flitting nimbly through the trees, and he unthinkingly pursued it. He knew it was foolish, but the more glimpses he saw of the pale creature, the more he wanted to catch it, speak to it and Merlin only knew what else he would do if he were just permitted to touch it.

The creature was beautiful and agile, racing through the trees in haste, but leaving the forest undisturbed. Its long obsidian hair trailed behind as it twisted and slid between the trunks on dancers feet.

Draco stumbled after it, clumsy and human in his pursuit, sure that he would never catch up, but feeling as though he could never give up his mission. When he finally looked up from the barrage of limbs and vines cutting into his progress, his eyes went wide with wonder.

He found himself in a glade, and it was the most beautiful sight he had ever beheld. Twilight met him in the glade, filling the forest with an otherworldly glow. The sounds of twinkling stars could be heard in the silence and the moon rose into view, casting its silver shine onto Draco's pale skin.

A fragrant breeze whipped through the glade, sending shivers up Draco's spine. It brought the sent of lilac and vanilla and Draco found himself leaning into it. He felt as though he had stumbled into a faerie glade and that at any moment he would look up to see faeries dancing all around him.

The sound of rushing water filled his ears and he followed it, marveling as he came across a crystal clear spring in the center of the silver moonlit glade.

The being he had chased through the wood danced over the water, its twinkling laugh carried over the damp grass, caressing Draco's skin with its joy and amusement. Draco gasped at its ethereal beauty, playfully dancing along the waters edge.

Everything stopped at the sound of Draco's breath, the moon, the plants, the water but most importantly the watery sprite, dancing in mirth. Draco was now certain it was a male because the sprite was clothed only in moonlight, and he turned his angelic face to stare at Draco, who could only gasp at the deep emerald pools of his eyes.

He was frozen in place, held still by the hypnotic jeweled tones of the sprite's eyes. He could only watch as the sprite flitted to his side, eyeing him curiously, a mischievous smirk playing on his lips as he ran a delicate finger over the flowers Draco still clutched in his hand. His hair fell in long raven locks, curling gently over his shoulders and down to graze the top of his arse, the fringe in front haloing around his magnificent and knowing eyes. His skin took on the same silvery sheen as Draco's; only it was slick and wet with spring water.

The sprite smiled, just a small curl of the lips, and Draco reached out to touch him, just a bare graze of fingers. Too slowly he watched his hand extend, only to grasp a fine mist, as the sprite faded into the air, his bell-like laugh the only thing left behind.

A second later a splash erupted in the spring and Draco stared unblinkingly as the nimble feet of the sprite descended into the depths of the crystal pool.

Just as quickly the spell was broken, leaving Draco to stare around him at an apparently ordinary glade. The world of the faerie faded around the edges, seeking a new audience in the night, and left Draco to stumble his way back to the manor alone.

Authors Note: This break in my usual fic routine has been great. I really enjoyed this fic so far. Please review and save a Nix. ;)


	2. Bäckahästen

Authors Note: This fic is for Imagination444. For anyone who is unsure of what a Nix is, you can either keep reading, or cheat and look it up on wilkipedia. lol. also, I've gotten a few random requests for friendship on my other accounts, and I just wanted to say that I pretty much approve anyone, so feel free to add me. I'm digitallace on Myspace, Facebook,Buzznet,Livejournal & Mibba.

Chapter 2 **Bäckahästen**

Thoughts were circling his mind like etched glass, frosting words and ideas into it for later speculation. It was distracting him from what would normally be a beautiful autumn morning, the sparkling crimson and gold leaves playing vivid light games across the water of his cool spring.

Humans.

They were selfish and meddlesome creatures, always poking their noses where they didn't belong. They liked coming up with names for what he was, things like Nix or Fossegrim, never realizing that his kind were older than written word, older than speech, and much, much older than humans. They liked to tell their children frightening tales about the Nix, who lured men, women and children to their watery deaths with their enchanting violin melodies.

There were still probably those who did such things, he had only a vague notion of how many of his kind were left in the world. Most of his kind had long gotten over their tendencies to drown humans. That particular game can only be amusing for so long after all.

Still, the one who followed him the night before had been intriguing, much more so up close than he had been from a distance. The Nix made sure to watch everyone who lived in the large manor at the edge of the wood, though the task wasn't too hard since it was only ever the Malfoy family who had resided there for the last several hundred years.

They were always the same; smug, overly confident and feeling a sense of entitlement that they shouldn't. They thought their blood was ancient, but they had no true marker for old blood.

"Pureblood," the Nix scoffed to himself. "Their blood is no more pure than mine is made from the water I live in."

And Magic, their magic was faulty parlor tricks in comparison to what he could do naturally, with no assistance from a wand.

The Nix swam lazily through his sparkling blue pool, watching the rising sunlight reflect off the leaves and make brilliant moving patterns on his flesh. As he neared a cluster of rocks in the center of his spring, he reached out to grab a soggy black box. Opening it he admired the emerald jewel inside, watching as it shimmered in the morning light.

The dimwitted human had just stood there, gaping at him as he plucked it right from his pocket.

Laughter like tinkling bells filled the glade as the Nix remembered his encounter with the young Malfoy boy. Draco they called him, after a constellation if he recalled correctly. The woman had been insistent that her son's name be something romantic and the father simply wanted it to sound strong and powerful.

Draco Malfoy.

The boy had been in his wood, his glade, he had seen him, _nearly _touched him. The Nix shook his head. It never bodes well when someone of his kind got too close to a human.

He wouldn't need to worry though; the boy would never be able to find his way back to this glade. He would simply stumble back to his home and pretend that it was a dream, just as his father had done before him.

The Nix chuckled again at the memory of his encounter with a young Lucius. He had been much more bold, reaching out to grab him right off instead of watching like a wide-eyed child as his son had done. Had he not disturbed the boy's Goldenrod as a distraction to steal the bauble in his pocket, he doubted Draco would have ever reached out.

The bell-like laughter filled the glade again as the Nix danced along its surface, playing his slick ebony violin in perfect harmony with the breeze and the sunlight. Maybe if the young Draco found him again, he would teach him to play. It could be his reward for being cleverer than the average human.

His song turned suddenly mournful, and the Nix looked up with hooded eyes, his obsidian hair blew fiercely in the wind, whipping and slashing his pale flesh. The clear pool around him began to darken and he reached down, letting the water cascade through his fingers. What was once clear blue spring water was now tainted with bright red blood.

The Nix called out, crying on the wind like a loon. Someone would die, at that very place, someone would drown in his glistening pool and the Nix could only imagine one being that would be foolish enough to stumble into his glade and drown.

--

Draco woke up with the worst headache he could ever remember having. The dreams he had the night before still lingered like a strange fog at the edge of his mind. Emerald green eyes blinking lazily came unbidden into mind, and then he remembered the woods and the faerie glade… and the water sprite. He thought wistfully of the boy's beauty, wishing he could have touched him, just once.

He shook his head to clear the ridiculous thoughts away. He would never have ventured into the forest and it was probably just a strange dream brought on by something he ate.

He climbed out of bed reluctantly and dressed for the day. He was a fair bit hungrier that he usually was in the mornings and went immediately down to the dining room where his mother and father waited with creased brows.

"Draco, where have you been?" his father asked the moment he sat down.

Draco looked around, slightly bewildered. "I didn't sleep any later than usual, sir."

"Dear, no one has seen you since I left you in the garden yesterday. You never even came to dinner," his mother said.

Draco shook his head and smiled. "That's impossible," he replied, but realized he couldn't recall what they had for dinner. All he could remember was the startling green eyes and the pale boy with rich black hair. "I…" he began, but had nothing he could say. He obviously hadn't joined them for dinner, which means his dream must not have been a dream at all.

His father narrowed his eyes and watched him carefully.

"I think… I think I was in the wood, but I cannot remember. It all feels like a dream," he whispered.

"I told you never to go into the forest," his father boomed. "It's dangerous."

"There was a song… it was so beautiful," he continued in a breathy whisper, ignoring his father who was now staring at him with wide eyes. "Then I followed a boy, and he led me to the most enchanting glade-"

"Enough," his father growled. "There will be no talk of faerie folk or magical glades here in this house. You mustn't go into the wood, Draco."

Draco's head snapped up in attention at his father's angry words. "I'm sorry, sir."

"You need to focus, son. This week is important; you need to make sure that your head is clear and your priorities are in order. You'll be meeting your future wife soon, and she'll no doubt respond poorly to talk about mysterious boys in the forest. Do you understand?" Lucius asked, and Draco nodded.

"Good. Now, go up to your room and think about what you have to do to prepare. We'll send breakfast up soon," he added, ignoring Narcissa's pointed look.

Draco obeyed, and stalked up to his room, listening to his mother bicker with his father over sending him away.

"He'll be fine, Lucius," his mother hissed. "I know. He just needs time to sort things out. The woods have enchanted him and he needs to clear it from his mind. Life is not a fairytale," Lucius responded. "Maybe it should be for him, he's only a boy after all," his mother replied, and Draco could hear her leave the table and glide away. "He's twenty," his father called after her. "He's been a man for three years. It's time he acted like one." But there was no answer to his words. Narcissa had left the table and was no longer listening to her husband.

He sighed to himself while making his way back up to his room. His stomach rumbled as he ran through the list of things he had to do to prepare for Pansy's arrival. He had already arranged for proper accommodations in the manor, and also made sure the room was filled with flowers upon her arrival. He ordered his dress robes the day before and would pick them up later in the week, and the ring was in his pocket.

Except it wasn't.

His eyes went wide as he realized the heavy weight that had been with him now for almost two weeks was no longer there in his robe pocket. The ring was gone, lost somewhere.

He rushed up to his room and ransacked it, searching high and low for the lost engagement ring. Then his mind whirled and spun and clicked into place.

The woods.

He must have dropped it somewhere along the way, or maybe even on his trip back from the glade. He would never be able to find it on the dense forest floor. But it was far too expensive and important not to at least try.

Quietly he snuck back downstairs and out the back doors, winding through the garden and darting back into the woods. The last thing Draco needed was his father to see him and have to explain that he had lost the precious ring. His father had shown him an unusual spark of trust the day before when he refrained from lecturing Draco about keeping expensive jewelry in the family safe.

Draco drifted past the goldenrod he had picked the night before, and ventured further into the wood, scanning the ground for anything that could be his precious ring box. He was further into the wood then he liked, no longer able to see the manor through the trees, but he knew that his parents would know he was gone.

Whichever house elf they had sent up with his breakfast had no doubt reported the state of his room and his absence by now. At least if he got lost this time, there would probably be a search party soon.

The forest was far less dreamlike in the light of early afternoon, but the leaves still fell from the treetops and dappled light still made the forest shine in gold and red. A brilliant white light shone in the distance, and Draco inhaled sharply, thinking it might be his illusive water sprite.

But no, it was merely a bright white steed standing in an outcropping and watching Draco intently.

He carefully made his way over to the horse, thinking it could be a unicorn, and thinking he had never seen one so close before. When he got closer however, he realized it had no horn, and though its fur was white like pearls, it was also long and shaggy, catching bits of leaves from the ground, not closely shorn like a unicorn.

It bowed to Draco as he approached; its eyes flickering like silver mercury in the sunlight. Draco smiled, and returned the bow, as was customary behavior with magical creatures. The horse stooped lower though, as if indicating that Draco should climb onto it. He blinked rapidly, unsure that it was wise to ride such a wild and beautiful creature, but it seemed to be pulling him, drawing him closer.

Before he even realized his own whereabouts he was holding tightly to the horses mane as it led him perilously deeper into the wood. He hadn't recalled climbing onto the giant beast, but regardless, he was barreling through the forest at breakneck speed. He cried out for it to stop, tried to throw himself off, even tried casting repelling charms, but nothing worked. Draco stayed rooted to the horse as if he were part of it.

A thrill of excitement flew through him as he recognized the glade from the night before. The horse was bearing him through it, directly into the spring where the beautiful water sprite resided.

The water came up over Draco's legs, chilling him to the bone, and he called out for the horse to stop. The horse seemed to have an agenda of its own however, as it continued to pull Draco deeper and deeper into the sparkling blue spring. The water kept rising, covering his shoulders and his neck, then creeping up over his mouth and nose, and then finally the vile horse had him completely submerged in the clear stream.

He watched with wide eyes as the water took him under, singing him softly to sleep with its autumn chill. He held his breath, unable to think of a single spell that could get him out of this mess, and thrashed wildly, trying to free his body from the horse's enchantment.

As he began to lose consciousness he swore he saw a pair of brilliant green eyes in the depth of the water, but then all was suddenly dark as the blackness edged into his vision and took Draco into its clutches.

Authors Note: Okay, so I know it was a bit of a wait for chapter 2. I hope it was worth it, and I hop you're al noticing my chapters lengthening. lol. Please review and you just might be rewarded with a special treat!


	3. Stolen

Authors Note: This story is moving quickly through my head. I don't currently have a beta for this series, so bare with me. Thanks to Imagination444 for his request of this story as well as for his entertaining reviews! I'm posting this early (tonight instead of tomorrow morning) because I have no idea if I'll get the chance to post tomorrow or not.

Chapter 3 Stolen

The Nix was perched on an outcropping of rocks in the center of the spring, watching the progression of the pale white steed carrying the hapless human who had found him the night before. It was just as he had suspected.

Flailing wildly as only humans do, Draco sat atop the horse, and would soon be pulled under the water to meet his watery doom. The Nix watched curiously, unsure of what he would do. Most of him wanted to leave the human to his fate, in which case he would no longer need worry about the young Malfoy boy stumbling upon his glade again. Who was he to interfere in the ways of nature and magic? He should just let the boy drown, and let the brook horse have its victory.

Another part of the Nix's mind however was begging him to stop the horse and to save the lovely human boy. He really was quite beautiful, and it would be a shame to waste such stunning good looks in the depth of the water. But more than that the Nix felt a pull from the boy, something he had never felt toward a human in these many long centuries of existence.

This connection intrigued him, and as he saw the brook horse barreling down into the water, pulling the young boy with it, he decided at last that he wanted to explore this new feeling.

He leapt easily from the rocks and dove into the spring, never even making a sound or ripple on the waters surface. He pulled the limp and silent body from the back of the horse and swam easily with him to the rocks in the center of the pool.

The Nix placed the young Malfoy child on the rocks, stretching him out and ignoring the angry braying of the Bäckahästen as it climbed back out of the pool. "He is mine, I saw him first," the Nix called, waving the great white horse away.

The creature obeyed with a huff and tromped back into the woods, leaving the Nix to focus his attention on the lovley pale boy lying in front of him.

Draco's skin shown blue in the sunlight and the Nix stared at him curiously, tracing featherlight fingertips along his jaw. He leaned down and pressed his lips lightly to those of the dying boy and pulled back roughly as Draco sputtered to life.

Draco coughed and spat the water filling his lungs all over the rock while the Nix watched on, frowning at the display of fragile mortality. He wondered briefly if he would ever die, or rather if anything could ever kill him. Surely nothing so easily as a simple lungful of water nearly did to the Malfoy child.

And he was just a child, a mere infant in comparison to the Nix.

"Are you better yet?" he asked the boy, who was now shivering, his breath coming in quick gasps.

The boy started and looked nearly ready to scream, but the Nix held a delicate finger to his lips, quieting the boy instantly. "Y-You, you're the one I saw last night," he stammered.

The Nix grinned and nodded, happy that the chill water hadn't dampened the boys senses too severely. He knew his voice would affect the young Malfoy child in an otherworldly way, so he refrained from speaking just yet.

"You saved me?" Draco whispered, and again the Nix only nodded, very pleased with himself.

Draco looked around the glade, but his eyes never left the Nix's for long. For some reason this pleased him, though he couldn't explain the reason for his happiness, not even to himself.

"Do you have a name?" Draco asked him.

The Nix thought about the ramifications of speaking to the boy, and whether or not he would be enchanted into a blithering stupor. He eventually decided that he would never be able to have his own questions answered if he couldn't speak, so he tried. "I have many names," he answered, waiting for those silvery eyes to glaze over with whatever emotion alleviated humans of their capacity to think clearly.

But it never occurred.

Draco blinked and shook his head slightly but was able to meet his gaze and smile. No trace of enchantment fogged over the boy's stunning eyes and for the second time the Nix was startled by his own pleasure at yet another revelation about the boy. "What can I call you?" he asked.

"What do you _want_ to call me?" the Nix asked curiously. The need to name everything was one of those human things that he did not quite understand.

"Surely you must have a name, hasn't anyone called after you before?" Draco asked.

The Nix pondered, thinking back as long as he could recall and he couldn't recount anything. "No, nothing comes to mind. You could always call me Nix," he offered.

But Draco shook his head. "No, that just won't do. You need a proper name," he added. The Nix looked at him skeptically for a moment and wondered why this boy wasn't adversely affected by the sound of his voice. The brook horse had ensnared him easily enough and their enchantments were very similar.

"I'll call you Harry," Draco said at last.

"Harry?" the Nix repeated with a frown.

"Yes, it's the first thing I noticed about you, your long flowing black hair, plus it's a noble name, the name of Kings," he mused, reaching his hand out to touch the raven locks and then letting it drop immediately as if scalded by the air around him. "I could call you emerald, for your eyes if you prefer?"

The Nix laughed his tinkling laughter and shook his head. "No, no. Harry is fine. I'm sure the title will grow on me."

"My name is Draco Malfoy," he introduced, and Harry smiled.

"I know," he replied.

"How do you know?" Draco asked, looking shocked.

"I know about all of you, what I don't know is why, young Draco Malfoy, you're down here in my glade… again," the Nix added with a frown.

"I was looking for… hey, that's mine," Draco shouted, pointing at the ring on Harry's right hand.

The Nix grinned wildly and held the ring up to the afternoon sun, letting it sparkle and shimmer in the light. "I know. I took it from you."

Draco stared at him with a mixture of awe and resentment. "Why would you do that?"

"I think the better question is, why wouldn't I?" he replied with a mischievous grin.

"Well, give it back," Draco demanded with a huff, causing the Nix another bought of jubilant laughter.

"I'm not sure I want to," he replied at last. "I rather like it. It matches my eyes, don't you think?"

The breeze shifted and Draco shivered again, not from the anger of Harry's taunting but from the cold air still wafting against his wet clothes and hair.

"What's wrong with you?" the Nix asked, concern lacing his voice.

"C-cold," Draco replied through chattering teeth.

"Well, don't you have a charm or something you can use to dry yourself?" Harry asked.

"D-dropped wand," he shivered again.

The Nix looked at him curiously and smirked. "If I fetch you your wand, can I keep the ring?" he asked, knowing Draco couldn't really take it from him regardless.

"It belongs to someone else," Draco said.

Harry sighed and pouted but Draco wouldn't waver. "Fine," he said at last and dove into the glistening water.

--

Draco watched the place where Harry had jumped into the water for several minutes, waiting for him to reemerge, but nothing happened. He figured the beautiful boy had left him to wander back on his own, now without a ring or a wand.

He silently cursed himself for venturing into the woods and cringed from the inevitable tongue-lashing he would get from his father for his recklessness. Maybe if he told his father first about the near death experience he might be so overwhelmed with protectiveness that he'll spare him a nasty punishment, but Draco rather thought that wouldn't be happening.

He began to slide from the rock, preparing to get back into the water in order to swim across when thick black hair and brilliant green eyes arose from the clear depths of the spring. "Where are you going?" Harry asked, staring at him in confusion.

Draco blinked against the intoxicating sound of the Nix's voice. It was like drinking too much fine wine and finding his mind suddenly fuzzy every time the Nix spoke. But Draco fought hard against the languid feeling that tried to claim his mind. He was fascinated by the Nix and wanted to be sober for their exchange. "I thought you'd left me," he replied at last, his toes wiggling in the icy water.

"I wouldn't," the Nix said, his voice caressing over Draco's skin like a cool breeze, sending a renewed bought of shudders through his body.

He held out his shimmering white hand to Draco, and in his palm was the wand Draco had dropped while drowning.

Draco took the wand and after several minutes and three drying and warming charms, Draco felt better, though he quickly realized he was still on the rocks and would have to get back in the water to leave. Still, maybe the Nix wouldn't kick him off his rock immediately and Draco could learn more about the beautiful creature.

It seemed at least that Harry was equally fascinated with him, though how someone as ethereal and otherworldly as the Nix could find anything interesting in Draco he could only guess.

"My ring?" he asked at last, when fully dry.

"Not yet," Harry replied and stared directly into his eyes with a grin.

"When?" he asked, feeling less annoyed and more curious then before.

"Possibly once I let you leave," the Nix replied, that wild smile making his face look both beautiful and wicked all at once.

Draco shivered again, but this time it was not from the cold, but from the intensity of Harry's gaze. It was then that Draco noticed the severe lack of clothing covering the boy and he blushed furiously.

"What? Are you still cold?" Harry asked.

"No, you should be though. You're not wearing a thing," Draco commented, averting his eyes.

The enchanting creature looked down and the glade filled with his bell-like laughter. "Does this bother you?"

It didn't, and that was the real thing that bothered him. Draco began removing his coat and handed it to the Nix. "Here, you can wear this while I'm here."

Harry shook his head, sending ebony locks dancing in the breeze. "That will be unnecessary," he replied as the air shifted around him forming a flowing ice blue toga-like covering over his body.

Draco missed the sight of exposed flesh at once, but was quickly burying the regret deep within himself. "How did you do that?" he asked in awe, masking his disappointment at losing the previous view.

The Nix lounged gracefully along the rock, his hand just a hairsbreadth away from Draco's as he made slow circles with his fingertips over the stone. Draco wanted badly to reach out and touch him, but Harry's words distracted him. "I can make myself look like whatever I wish," the Nix answered at last.

"But this is your true form?" Draco asked, still resisting the urge to reach out and touch the beautiful faerie boy.

He titled his head to the side in thought. "I suppose, but only because I use it most often. In fact, I'm not sure I know what my true form is, or if I even have one for that matter," he said with a frown.

Draco sighed, the beauty of the Nix's face and the intoxicating sound of his voice overwhelming him for a moment.

Like lightning the Nix was kneeling in front of him so that they were knee to knee, and leaned into Draco, carefully keeping his body hovering just in front of him and never touching any part of himself to any part of Draco.

When he spoke his voice was like wind chimes right beside Draco's ear, his sparkling eyes never leaving the other's gaze for even a second. "You can touch me if you want, Draco," he whispered, his breath washing over him. Harry smelled of water lilies and sunshine and he knew in the moment that _touching_ the boy would not be enough.

A low chuckle resonated though the Nix's body as if he could read his impure thoughts. Draco tried to cast away the embarrassment he felt and reached a tentative hand out to the Nix.

Harry caught Draco's hand with his own and guided it gently to his face, coaxing Draco's fingertips along his jaw, his chin and then up to his lips where Harry kissed each fingertip individually, sending a cascade of sensations and emotions over the boy's body.

Part of Draco wanted to run and hide from the pleasure he was feeling, because surely it couldn't be normal. But then the rest of him, the much larger part at the moment, wanted to harness the feelings and ride them over the edge.

He wasn't sure what he expected exactly, when he touched Harry's cool flesh. He thought it might feel like an ocean mammal, firm and rubbery, or perhaps it would feel soft and wrinkly like his own did when he lingered in the bath too long.

But it felt like neither of these things, in fact, it felt like nothing he could describe. It was both hot and cold simultaneously, burning into his flesh and soothing it after. It was soft, but taught and left his fingers feeling numbed and tingly, like he was grazing his fingers across a dream.

All at once the world caught up with him when the Nix sighed and closed his eyes, releasing Draco from his captivating gaze. Draco was about to drop his hand, which was now running through the soft damp locks of Harry's wild mane, when the Nix murmured in pleasure against his face, his lips so close to Draco's that he could feel Harry's breath mingling with his own.

Draco nearly whimpered in defeat as the side of his brain, which craved the Nix, banished the rational side, which had been telling him to run back to the manor and never come back. Harry's eyes flew open at the sound and they were alight with a hunger that Draco had never before seen in any human.

"I want to kiss you," the Nix purred, sending shudders down Draco's spine.

"Please," Draco moaned in response, not sure if he wanted it to be 'please do' or 'please don't' but knew it was really up to Harry regardless.

Slowly and carefully the Nix's lips covered his own, as if the mythological being were afraid to break him, and perhaps he was. This was what Draco had wanted all along, not to merely touch the ethereal beauty in front of him, but to taste him, and he wasn't disappointed.

The Nix tasted of wild berries and salt, the flavor of which coasted over his tongue like a fragrant wine. A jolt of electricity shot through him as the Nix threaded fingers through his blonde hair and pulled him in, so that their body's touched in a line all the way down to their knees.

Draco was lost in the feel of the Nix's kiss, the tongue deftly probing his mouth, the taste and scent of him, it was all overwhelming his dull human senses and he wondered briefly what it felt like to Harry.

The Nix broke their kiss reluctantly, and ran his fingertips through Draco's hair once more before opening his sparkling eyes and gazing at the conquered Draco.

That was how he felt, conquered, as if his whole world now belonged solely to this magical being, with just that one kiss.

He leaned into the Nix, craving his touch again, feeling barren without it, and Harry chuckled low and seductive as he ran fingertips over Draco's swollen red lips. "Your father is in the forest looking for you," Harry whispered. "He's getting rather close," he added with a frown.

It took several moments for the meaning and impact of the words to settle into Draco's mind, which was still clouded with the blissful taste of Harry. But eventually, and reluctantly, he nodded and moved a little further away, noticing the further he got, the more clearly he could think.

The Nix stared at him through thick black eyelashes and pouted. "You father always spoils my fun. I intended to keep you, but Lucius has been here before, and he'll find my glade again if I do not bring you back to him."

At the thought of being 'kept' by the Nix and shiver composed of want, need and fear drilled down his spine. "How long?" Draco asked, hoping he could still spend time with his Faerie boy before having to leave.

"Not long," the Nix replied with another pout, holding his hand out to him. Draco placed his hand in Harry's and their fingers intertwined as one, then a moment later, Harry was jumping them from the rock and across the water in a single graceful leap.

Draco was relieved that he didn't have to get wet again, and marveled at the speed and agility with which the Nix pulled him through the forest underbrush. It wasn't long before he could hear voices and see wand light in the distance. "He's there," the Nix whispered against Draco's ear, sending a fresh wave of shudders through his body.

Nodding, Draco took one last lingering gaze at the ethereal and luminescent Harry, and started trudging though the underbrush. He only got two steps when he remembered what had brought him into the wood in the first place. "My ring," he called back to Harry.

The Nix smiled and waggled his fingers under the approaching moonlight, showing off the sparkling bauble still on his finger. "Maybe next time," he replied with a tinkling laugh and disappeared into the forest canopy.

Draco shook his head, but was unable to free himself of the grin plastered onto his pale face. He knew he would get help with that however, when it came time for him to explain the loss of the ring, and the reason for him being in the woods. He was catching up to his father slowly, and dreaded the encounter, wishing he could run back to the glade and stay with his lovely water sprite.

Authors Note: I hope you are all enjoying the fic. I'm sure you can tell it's different from my norm, but I find it a refreshing change of pace. For reviewing this chapter I'm giving out faerie harry's. I just like the sound of that.


	4. Cast Off

Authors Note: Many thanks to my beta Shannon for her work on this fic! I'm working on a oneshot for her birhday that will be posted Tuesday (yay) waves to Imagination444 who requested this fic. I hope this lives up to his expectations

Chapter 4 Cast Off

All Draco could think about was Harry.

Over the course of the next two days, Draco was locked in his room, his quarters surrounded by new and powerful wards, making him unable to leave and venture into the wood beyond his house. It was the punishment for disobeying his father and going into the wood for a second time. Draco hadn't told Lucius about the ring yet, as he still held hope that he would get it back, but knew that would never happen in time if he weren't permitted to see the Nix again.

He didn't know what to do. His father would be alerted if Draco tried to leave, but all of his nerve endings were on fire when he thought of the beautiful Nix. Draco thought he might go crazy if he didn't see him again soon.

A gentle tapping at his window drew his attention. He expected to see an owl, perhaps delivering him his nightly addition of the _Prophet_, but instead on his window ledge was a small blue bird with a black tuft of feathers on its head.

He went to the window and watched the bird curiously as it tilted its head from side to side and hopped about on the sill. Draco opened the window cautiously and moved out of the way as the bird dove into the room, landing gracefully on Draco's headboard and chirping a melodic tune.

The song sounded hauntingly familiar and Draco gaped as right before his eyes, the bird shifted from its compact form into that of his enchantingly beautiful Nix. Harry perched on the bedpost for a second and then swung down gracefully to land directly in front of Draco.

The feathers that had covered him in bird form still adorned his body and he was clothed in the brilliant blue pieces, which Draco could now see shimmered a deep green in contrasting light. They draped about the lower part of his body like flowing feather trousers, trailing down to his bare feet. It looked like part of a masquerade costume, and Draco made a mental note to relay the idea to his tailor for future use with his own dress robes.

"You haven't been to visit me," the Nix accused at once, looking slightly affronted.

"I've been locked here since the _last_ time I visited," Draco apologized, not wanting to anger or disappoint the lovely creature.

The Nix whirled and swept around Draco like a breeze. "Lucius did seem awfully upset," he mused in a singsong voice. "Did he spank you?" he asked, a wicked grin spreading across his face.

Draco gaped at the mischievous sprite. "Merlin no, he's never laid a hand on me."

Harry chuckled lightly and reached out as if to caress Draco's face, but hovering just above it. "Would you like _me_ to lay a hand on you?"

Draco blushed furiously, but as he thought of the kiss he shared with the ethereal being just a couple days ago, he could no longer hide his persistent interest in the Nix. His head lolled back and he groaned as Harry's hand dropped from his cheek and grazed gentle fingertips along Draco's covered erection.

"Hm, humans are such wanton creatures," the Nix mused. "Tell me Draco, what are you feeling right now?"

Draco tried to think through the haze of pleasure in order to answer him as Harry's movements became more precise. He was still fully clothed but hard to bursting and every time the Nix ran his hand over Draco's groin, stars burst behind his eyelids and a soft moan escaped his lips.

"I want you so bad," Draco cried.

With a smirk Harry paced around Draco and wrapped his arms around him from behind, slowly removing Draco's shirt and trousers and pushing him toward the bed. "I would bind you to me if I could, Draco Malfoy," he sighed.

"Please," Draco moaned, feeling feathers tickle his bare legs as Harry lowered him onto the bed. He didn't know what he was thinking, or what he was really asking for, but he craved Harry like he craved air. He wanted to drink deeply from the water sprite and was willing to drown if that's what it took.

His back arched when Harry trailed sharp fingernails across his bare torso, drifting down to his black silk boxers. Harry frowned at the offending article of clothing and as he ran his hand over it; it vanished, leaving Draco pale and nude in front of the grinning Nix.

"You really are very lovely," he whispered against Draco's ear just before gripping his length and stroking him lightly. The friction wasn't enough for Draco, and he thrust roughly into Harry's fist.

It made the Nix chuckle but he seemed content to watch Draco's body writhe beneath his touch. He trailed wet lines with his tongue across Draco's neck and torso, driving him mad with desire.

Draco yelped as thick green vines grew from his bed frame and lashed him to the mattress. Unable to move, he looked up into Harry's crystal green eyes in question. "Do you trust me?" Harry asked, and Draco nodded without a second thought.

Harry straddled him and he could feel the feathers dissipating under his weight and watched as they flowed up his body, marking various places on his shoulders and arms. They trailed down to his fingertips and Harry used their downy softness to tease Draco's nipples into attention. "You shouldn't," Harry told him at last, cupping Draco's face and pulling him into a searing kiss.

The Nix's hair fell around them both like a curtain, blocking out all light and sound and making it feel as if they were the only two people in the world. Draco wanted to keep his eyes open during the kiss, to absorb every little detail of Harry, but the pleasure rocked him and drove his eyelids closed despite his best efforts.

Draco's mind fuzzed over as the tastes of Harry mingled with his own need and he found himself trying to press every inch of his body against the watery sprite, but unable to move because of his binds.

"I can taste your desire like a fragrant flower," Harry purred as he rutted against Draco's exposed thigh. Draco's cock jumped at the touch, eliciting a bell like laugh from Harry's perfectly pink lips.

"You're just so delicate, I never really realized how fragile a human was until now," Harry mused. He leaned in and ghosted a kiss across Draco's brow. "What do you want, Draco?"

"You," he sobbed, unable to control the thick emotion clogging his mind. "Harry," he whined. "Please."

Harry took him then, writhing and moaning with pleasure below him he entered the tight blonde with a languid thrust and Draco nearly passed out from the sensation. He struggled against his bonds, wanting desperately to touch the nymph-like creature as he slid in and out of him.

The pleasure built like a storm, hovering in the gray havens and waiting to break. He felt his eyelids flutter with each new thrust and he imagined their bodies glowing like lightning strikes. With the barest of touches Harry sent him over the edge, and the orgasm hit him like crashing thunder, making his body shudder and making his throat scream out his climax.

Harry quickly followed, his body moving like liquid above Draco as the quivering waves of pressure exploded, making him shiver like a leaf in the breeze. A soft glow emanated from his body, almost exactly as Draco had imagined and a contented sigh escaped his lips.

Moving swiftly above him, Harry banished the vines from Draco's wrists and slipped quickly yet carefully from Draco's sated body. Draco immediately pulled the other boy into a kiss, which curled his toes and brought a soft moan of ecstasy. "I love you," Draco sighed.

Twinkling laughter filled the room and Draco blinked against it. "You cannot love me," Harry replied, seeming to find some grand joke in Draco's statement.

"But I do," he said, and knew at once that his words were true.

Harry shook his head and pushed a lock of blonde hair behind Draco's ear. "You only _think_ you love me, but you're mistaken I assure you."

"How can you say that?" Draco asked, feeling the afterglow slip from his body at Harry's protests. He backed away, shaking his head in dismay at the haunting creature.

"Because, it's true. You do not love me, but rather the idea of being free, but if I freed you, than you would quickly find what you thought to be love a sham. I'm not even sure humans have the capacity to _truly_ love," Harry mused, looking deep in thought.

"You don't know what I feel, you can't!" Draco shouted, suddenly furious with the Nix for admonishing his deep and persistent feelings for him. Draco _did_ love him; he could feel it like burning flames in his heart.

"You feel lust toward me, and fondness I'm sure, but your heart is not large enough nor ancient enough to properly love me," Harry sighed, still smiling, but the smile no longer reached his eyes.

"And you, what do you feel for me, then?" Draco asked, suddenly unsure if he wanted to hear the answer.

Harry moved with an unearthly swiftness to Draco's side and kissed him sweetly on the cheek. "I'm quite fond of you as well, fonder than I have ever been of a human," he answered.

"You said you wanted to bind me to you," Draco reminded him. "Why would you say such things if you were only _fond_ of me?"

"I would, but you belong to another, and there is nothing I can do about that. Your names are already merged in the stars and your father will make certain it comes to pass," the Nix told him, carefully schooling his face into a blank mask.

"I won't have her," Draco protested. "I'll break the stars and deny my father's wishes, would you have me then?"

Harry shook his head sadly and backed away, back toward the still open window. "I couldn't."

"Why?" Draco pleaded. With every minute he spent with Harry, the less he could envision this life he had mapped out for him by his father. He couldn't imagine Pansy living up to the beauty of the Nix, nor could he share the intense feelings Draco had for him with someone so ordinary.

Moonlight played across his skin as Harry moved closer to the window. He slipped the ring from his finger and tossed it to Draco, who let it fall into his hand. "I cannot keep you, as much as I would like to, Draco," Harry whispered into the air. "You don't belong in my world, nor would you last," he sighed.

"Then be with me in mine," Draco replied, ignoring the salty tears streaming down his face. He couldn't begin to explain his sharp and binding attachment to the Nix, but it was stronger and fiercer than anything he had ever experienced before.

Harry shook his head again. "Even now the water calls to me, I cannot be away for long."

"So, what now?" Draco asked, silent sobs threatening to choke him.

"Now I leave, and you don't come after me," he replied, moving ever closer to the window.

"No," Draco shouted, shaking his head and running toward the window, intending to block Harry's exit, but the Nix was faster and perched himself lightly on the windowsill before Draco could reach it.

"Draco," he chastised. "This is for your own good. You're too affected by my presence, and it's best for you if I leave now before I cause you more harm."

Draco fell to his knees in front of the Nix, his head bowed and his body shuddering with sobs. "Don't leave. Please, don't leave," he cried.

There was no answer and when Draco finally found the strength to look up, he found his room entirely devoid of Harry. His whole body shook from the weight of the depression that sank over him, and he sat on the floor, his prone form just a carved out shell left by the Nix. He felt as though the wicked sprite stole his soul away when he left.

So short of a time had they spent together, but it was more potent for Draco than he could have ever imagined. He worried once whether he had the capacity to love someone, if he would ever feel for Pansy what his parents felt for each other.

Now he knew it was well within his depths, but could he muster up the ability to experience it again now that Harry left him so broken and torn.

Would he really never see him again, never touch his glowing body, or taste his sweet lips? Had Harry made love to him for both the first and last time, and could anyone else ever satisfy him after being with the otherworldly creature?

--

Harry ghosted through the garden trying his best to ignore the sobbing pleas of Draco above in his room. He normally would have been selfish enough to take the boy and keep him, but he thought better of it. Perhaps he cared enough not to seal the boy to a watery fate, but he wasn't certain. Perhaps he was already wanting for a new plaything, but the echo of being inside Draco's body still lingered in his mind and if he admitted it to himself, he would know that he wanted to feel that way again.

Surely the boy was affected more than Harry was, but his leaving Draco also left a small gap inside of the Nix that he had never felt before. Part of him yearned to kiss away Draco's tears and make promises he would never be able to keep, but the wisdom in his heart told him to leave it be and just go.

Still, though he stayed out of sight and never appeared to him in his favored form, Harry watched over the boy until his bride was expected to arrive.

He felt a twinge of jealousy, which he immediately cast away, every time he thought of the woman who would share Draco's bed. He desperately wished he could whisk him away into the wood and hold onto him forever, but a mortal's life is short, and forever to Draco would be such a short time to Harry.

Harry.

He wanted to cast off the name given to him by the lovely boy, but couldn't will himself to do so, not yet. He would wait until Draco was married and perhaps produced an heir. He would wait until there was no chance that the boy would want to come back to him.

Authors Note: Okay, so last time I gave out Faerie Harry's, so this time I'm giving out Lord Draco's.


	5. Irrevocable

Authors Note: *** To anyone who hasn't already seen, I've posted a new Oneshot called Only Fools Rush In. It's quite long, so be warned. Also, I've started a yahoo group for anyone who wishes to join which I will be using for various things related to my fiction including update alerts, story/chapter discussion and other things. If you're interested you can join at groups dot yahoo dot com/group/Digitallace/ Many thanks to my beta Shannon for her work on this chapter.

Chapter 5 Irrevocable

The proverbial trumpets sounded as Draco waited in front of Malfoy Manor watching a glistening white and silver carriage approach. His mother smoothed the collar of his emerald green robes - which only served to remind him of Harry as so many things had done over the last few days - and sighed contentedly. "You look so handsome, Draco," Narcissa cooed.

"Don't coddle the boy, Cissy," Lucius ordered and focused his attention on Draco. "Stand up straight and smile," he directed.

Draco did as his father instructed but felt no emotion to fuel his smile. Over the past few days he had resolved that the Nix no longer wanted him, and part of him wondered if the Nix was even real or if he was a figment of Draco's marriage frightened imagination.

At night he would lay awake hoping that Harry would come to his room again, only to drift off to sleep and dream about Harry's supple skin and otherworldly presence. He even sometimes thought he could feel the weight of the Nix's lithe body pressed against him in his sleep but woke to find his bed empty.

As Pansy's carriage approached, Draco's mind went blank. He couldn't possibly love this girl, as horrible as it might make him. His heart belonged to another and even though Harry cast it aside, it was still his for the claiming.

The tan colored horses came to a stop and Tippy the house elf scurried forward to open the carriage door. Draco held his breath and his mother whispered words of encouragement in his ear.

A foot, dressed in a pale white slipper, stepped out of the carriage followed by a lovely young girl; a girl Draco would have thought beautiful before he met Harry and understood what true beauty was.

She wore a silvery chiffon gown that flowed along behind her as she walked up to Draco's family and curtseyed. Narcissa was the first to greet her, wrapping her pale arms around the girl and holding her to her breast.

Lucius bowed and nodded to the girl and passed her to Draco who kissed the back of her hand and held it aloft as he ushered her into the house. Draco gave her the grand tour of the manor, pointing out all the opulent and handmade details throughout. She shyly followed after him, nodding when he spoke and showing appropriate awe where expected, she was very well trained.

Draco scrutinized his new bride looking for any obvious flaw he could complain about to his father but found nothing of great importance.

Pansy was petite and giggly, her shoulder length dark hair bouncing with each new bought of laughter. She was polite and graceful, slim and pretty and showed a fair bit of cleverness in the first few hours in his home.

It disgusted Draco more than anything that she was exactly what he would have wanted just a few short weeks ago. Pansy was better than any bride he could have hoped for as far as he could tell, and that made him furious. Furious at himself for falling into a faeries trap and furious with the Nix for snaring his senses so irrevocably.

--

Dinner was no more eventful then usual.

Narcissa adored Pansy at once and offered to show her the garden after they finished eating. Lucius, who rarely liked anyone, even seemed content with the girls easy company. It was almost as if she had been part of their family for decades rather than hours.

She ate quietly, answering questions when asked directly and putting her two sense in on wizarding laws and establishments, all of which agreed with Draco's own views. "Muggles are a pest," she stated firmly. "But they are a part of our world for better or for worse and they serve their role."

"It's true," Narcissa added. "For years our world has tried to conquer theirs, and for what? We live a fine life hidden from them, and muggles go about their day to day existence without a worry about magic surrounding them."

"What I don't understand are the pureblood wizards who take up with muggles, diluting our blood and our magic," Pansy complained.

"Those are the true pestilence in our society for sure," Lucius agreed with the closest thing to a smile Draco had ever seen on his face.

Pansy smiled back at him and then turned her beaming face toward Draco and clasped his hand, squeezing it lightly. He didn't pull away as he would have liked to do. He thought the more practice he got with these intimate gestures toward his future wife the less he would think about Harry.

All at once there was a scream and a gasp from the dinner party as the water in Pansy's glass bubbled and boiled over, spraying the table and soaking Pansy completely through. "Oh," she cried, "what happened?"

Draco eyed the glass suspiciously and looked all around for a house elf who might have pulled the prank, but as the water settled on its own, Draco began to wonder if he shouldn't be interrogating another type of magical creature, namely a Nix.

It wasn't until Pansy got back from her walk in the garden with his mother and she reported being attacked by a ferocious blue bird that he knew for certain who the culprit was.

Worse still was when the bathwater attempted to drown her, pulling her under until she could scarcely breath and then letting go abruptly, sending her running out of the bathroom starkers and screaming.

Harry was toying with him still, after everything, after he confessed his love, offered to leave his home and be with him, gave away his heart, his mind, his soul, even his virginity to the wicked creature, still Harry felt the need to torment him from afar. Even though the sprite didn't want him, it seemed he didn't want him happy with anyone else either.

It wasn't fair and Draco wouldn't stand for it.

As soon as he bid Pansy goodnight and saw her safely to her quarters, he slipped out into the garden and looked for the watery nuisance.

--

Harry heard his name being called from the garden and he chuckled lightly to himself as he hopped down from the looming branch at the edge of the forest and skipped up to the garden wall.

"I mean it Harry, I know you're out here," Draco shouted. "I demand you show yourself this instant."

With an easy grace, Harry leapt over the garden wall and landed directly behind Draco's furious form. "You _demand_ it, do you?" Harry asked in a breathy whisper, causing Draco to spin around and confront him.

"What do you think you're doing?" Draco hissed.

Harry bowed so low his hair swept the rocky floor of the garden path. "I'm here, just as you wanted." It wasn't like the Nix to be at a human's beck and call, but Draco wasn't just any human, he was special to Harry.

"I want you to leave," Draco ordered, pointing in the direction the Nix had just come from.

Harry pouted and cocked his head to the side. "But I've only just arrived. Did you summon me just to tell me to go?" he asked, entirely perplexed by human rationale.

"Yes, I mean, no. I called you here to tell you to leave me alone. Forever," he amended.

"That's what I _was _doing," Harry informed him. "Then you called me." This was both true and not true. Harry was staying out of Draco's sight, carefully watching him during the day and waiting until he drifted off to sleep at night before carefully sneaking in and sleeping in the pale boy's bed right beside him. But there was no reason to inform the human boy of his difficulty staying away.

There was something irresistible about the blonde, and Harry regretted letting him live out his very human destiny.

"I only called you here to tell you to leave Pansy and I alone!" Draco shouted. "You've done me enough damage."

"It was only a few clever pranks, hardly anything to bat an eyelash over, love," Harry chuckled playfully.

"Don't call me that," Draco demanded, stomping his foot, his face turning an unattractive shade of red. He looked like a very angry kitten and it amused Harry greatly.

Harry swept around him like a soft breeze and ran his fingers through Draco's long blonde hair. "You smell wonderful; edible," he sighed, and Draco pulled away, albeit reluctantly.

"No," he shouted with less enthusiasm than before. "You've had your fun with me. Just let me be. I'm already destined to be miserable in a life with Pansy that I was meant to be happy with. Can't you just leave me alone?" he cried.

"Miserable?" Harry asked, genuinely concerned. "How can you be miserable? I left you to your true life, to your _human_ bride… you _can't_ be miserable."

"I'm not the same since I met you, you changed me and then left me a hollow shell of the Draco Malfoy you met in the wood that night. You've ruined me," he sobbed, falling to his knees on the harsh rocky path.

Harry felt tears emerging at the corners of his own eyes and he marveled at the sensation. Sadness and grief were such mortal emotions, and Harry didn't have room for them. He pulled Draco to his feet and kissed him furiously, trying to banish the tears and replace them with something he was used to feeling.

Draco returned the kiss, holding the Nix close and running his fingers through Harry's obsidian locks. Fire burned between them so fierce that Harry didn't think he would ever come up for air.

Then Draco shoved him away.

It startled Harry so much that he stumbled, another human thing that had never once happened in all his long uncountable years.

"Stop," Draco hissed. "Just leave me alone."

"If that's what you want," Harry sighed and started to slip into the long garden shadows.

"What I want is to forget about you, forget I ever met you!" Draco shouted into the dark.

Harry stilled his movements and rushed like the wind back to Draco's side. "Truly?"

"Yes," Draco hissed.

"I can do that for you, if you like," he offered sadly. "I can make you feel like it was all just a dream. You'll never remember any details, just a gentle fog where those hours you spent with me occurred."

"I-" Draco began, but hesitated, which gave Harry more joy then he had anticipated.

"You must be certain. Once I do it, it cannot be undone," Harry whispered, his lips hovering close to Draco's and a desperate yearning to kiss him again burning in his gut.

"Do it," Draco told him, his smoldering eyes gleaming in the moonlight.

"You'll never see me again, never hear my voice, or feel my touch. You won't remember anything, not the time I saved you, or the first kiss we shared or the-" Harry started but was promptly cut off by Draco's howl.

"Stop," he sobbed. "Please. You don't want me, so just let me go."

"I can't," Harry admitted, wiping the tears from Draco's eyes.

"Why not?" Draco cried, letting his body fall into Harry's open arms.

"I'm not sure yet," Harry told him, which was true. He cared about the boy more than was natural, more than he had ever cared for anything. "But I can tell you this, I've never been away from my pool for so long, and I only deprive myself of it for you."

Draco sighed and placed delicate kisses along the Nix's collarbone. "I want to be with you forever," he whispered.

Harry nodded automatically, liking the way that sounded. "I'm not sure how to make that happen though. Your forever and my forever are very different things."

"I'll come stay with you, ti'll be like camping," Draco offered with a smile.

Harry chuckled and ran his hands up and down Draco's back. "Not quite. I'm not human, I don't need to eat, I don't get thirsty, I don't need to sleep, I don't even need shelter from the weather. How would you survive that way?"

"I can learn to hunt, I can drink water from your pool, you can lay with me when I sleep and I can make a home for myself using the forest trees," Draco answered without hesitation.

Harry sighed and kissed Draco deeply, letting the taste of him chase all his worries away. He had much to think on and he needed to talk to the wood. The forest would know what the Nix would have to do, what the Nix was capable of, even better than himself.

"I need to go," he began and kissed Draco again to quell his sudden protest. "But I'll be back," he promised before stepping out of Draco's grasp and gliding into the darkness once more.

He flitted back over the wall, only sparing on last glance toward Draco, who was watching with rapt fascination.

He truly believed now that he loved the boy, for better or for worse, he adored him. What he didn't know was what that love meant. Did it mean he should erase the boy's memory of him and let Draco fulfill his human destiny? Did it mean that he should let the boy have his way and build himself a home by Harry's pool, where he would no doubt live a short and fruitless life? Or was there some third option, maybe even others that Harry had not yet thought of?

It was obvious that the Pansy girl cared for him, much to Harry's dislike. Should he leave Draco to her, let the girl try her best to make him happy? Of course that would require Harry to obscure the boy's memory of him and he wasn't sure he could do that, not now.

He also couldn't bear to watch him waste away in the forest without the proper means to live that fragile humans needed.

He watched from afar as Draco went back into the manor and he saw when his bedroom light flicked on. He watched from a nearby tree as Draco stripped and climbed into bed, a soft smile on that beautiful mouth. "I put that smile there," Harry mused to himself as he skulked closer and slipped silently into Draco's room.

"I do love you," Harry whispered to the sleeping blonde as he climbed into his bed, winding his limbs around him and pressing close. Draco sighed contentedly and snuggled closer, the soft smile widening in the dark of his room.

"Harry," Draco whispered softly into the night. "My Harry."

A grin blossomed across Harry's face at the words. Belonging was something he was familiar with. He belonged to the water, to the woods, to the birds, and to the breeze.

So as Draco fell deeper into slumber, Harry knew exactly what he had to do.

--

Authors Note: I'm accepting reviews in the form of song today, and perhaps dance....


	6. Visions of Potential

Authors Note: Thanks to my beta, Shannon for her work on this fic

Chapter 6 Visions of Potential

Harry left the warm comfort of Draco's down bed and lithe body and slipped out into the glistening dew filled morning.

He paced quietly around the garden for a time before flitting in bird form toward the forest edge, landing on a tree branch and falling like liquid to the ground where he stood in his favored form once more.

The Nix wove in and out of the trees, easily avoiding each fallen branch and stump as he danced into the center of his glade and dipped his toes into the magical faerie pool.

"I've made a decision," he called to the forest, letting the cool breeze drift over his naked flesh and grinning into it. "I want to be with him, but he cannot live here."

The trees rustled and shook as if nodding at Harry's obvious statement.

"I'm going to stay with him, I'm going to play the part of human, and I'm going to keep him for myself," Harry told the forest, firmly.

The wind blew and whistled around him, curling his ebony hair about his body. The golden leaves whipping through the trees all mysteriously avoided him, and the ground stirring at his feet created a tunnel surrounding his form.

"I'm sure!" Harry shouted in answer to the wind, to the trees and to whatever else would listen.

The forest had not been in agreement with his decision, and it stood now against him, warning Harry of the folly in his choice. Crimson leaves sliced against his skin, reflected sunlight from the pool blinded him but he stood against it.

"I know he's just a child, but I want him, and I will have him," Harry shouted into the forest.

Soil beneath him shifted and shook, causing a great rift between Harry and the forest pool. He braced himself as he toppled over and fell down and down through the earth. "I love him," he shouted, and the world stood still for a moment before pushing Harry back up to the surface.

When Harry opened his eyes, he was back in his glade and all was calm as it should be. He took a deep breath and looked into the pool's reflection one last time before turning and leaving the forest.

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Draco yawned and stretched as he padded downstairs to greet his mother and father. He had forgotten about their guest, but it was obvious that Pansy hadn't forgotten about him as he made his way toward the table. She met him halfway there and grabbed his arm, pulling him over to sit beside her and placed a delicate kiss on his cheek.

The blonde cringed inwardly, but tried to keep his neutral mask in place as he wondered over the happenings from the night before. Had he really talked the Nix out of leaving him? He said he was coming back, but so far there was no sign of the magical sprite anywhere.

Plunging his ridged spoon into his grapefruit the thought about kissing Harry, making love to Harry, spending the rest of his life with the beautiful ebony-haired nymph and he could feel his face heat up.

"You'll have to share what in Merlin's name is making you blush so furiously," Pansy whispered in his ear.

Draco merely chuckled and shook his head, turning toward his father and talking about safe things, such as the weather, when there was a knock at the door. They ignored it as they usually did, letting the house elf do his job and answer it, but Draco could see the curiosity in Lucius's eyes at the early morning intrusion.

A moment later Dobby walked in and cleared his throat reluctantly. "There is a visitor at the door for Master Draco."

Lucius narrowed his eyes at his son and Draco could only shrug. The only one he was expecting to see that day was the Nix, and a water sprite wouldn't use the front door, so he followed Dobby into the front parlor.

There, standing in the center of the room and looking around curiously was Harry, though not as Draco had ever seen him before. The man was dressed in regal blue slacks with a white blouse with a blue brocade jackets in a lighter shade then his trousers. His hair was tied back with a deep blue ribbon and smiled and bowed as Draco entered the room.

"Harry?" Draco asked, utterly stunned to see him in his home this way.

"In the flesh," Harry replied, drawing closer and grinning mischievously.

"How did you… why are you… I don't understand," Draco stammered, carefully studying every nuance of Harry's features. He was still stunningly beautiful, but there was no haunting glow to his skin, or a slick wet sheen to his raven hair, in fact he looked thoroughly dry.

Harry chuckled and suddenly the voice that had sounded so human before took on its breezy bell-like quality again and his skin began to emanate a soft radiance once more, pulling a sigh from Draco's throat.

Still grinning, the Nix floated over to Draco's ear and kissed him on the cheek before purring in his ear. "I love that I affect you that way."

Draco's eyes fluttered closed at the sound of Harry's voice but he quickly gathered his wits about him and pushed the Nix away. "You shouldn't be here," he hissed.

Harry pouted and pulled Draco closer, running his languid fingers across his jaw. "I came here for you, to be with you. I thought that was what you wanted," he said, slipping back into his human voice.

"I want you, but you can't be here, my father will see," Draco chided, but couldn't seem to extricate himself from Harry's arms, nor did he really want to.

"But that's the point. I'm being human for you, Draco," Harry informed him, as if that wasn't plainly obvious.

"But my father-" Draco whined, but the Nix shushed him at once.

"Leave Lucius to me," Harry purred and took Draco's hand, pulling him toward the stairs that led to Draco's room.

"Draco, who is this?" Narcissa asked from the opposite doorway.

Draco whirled around and stuttered and incoherent response. "You must be Lady Malfoy," Harry answered for him. "I'm Harry, A companion of your son's.

Narcissa smiled warmly and took Harry's offered hand. "Any friend of Draco's is welcome here. Where did you say you met?"

"I didn't say," he chirped, acting as though he would say no more, then laughed lightly. "We met in town while he was purchasing dress robes."

"So you're a wizard too then," she said, looking obviously relieved. "What household are you?" Draco saw Harry's eyes flicker for just a moment before replying with 'Potter'.

Narcissa beamed and nodded. "I thought you held resemblance to the Potter's. James comes from a fine line of wizards."

Draco looked at him with astonishment but Harry's didn't return the look. "If you don't mind, Draco was going to show me his quarters. He's invited me to stay the weekend."

"Oh, that'll be nice. It'll keep his mind off the upcoming wedding," Narcissa cooed and waved them off.

Harry whisked Draco up the stairs and into his room before shutting and latching the door. "Alone at last," he purred.

"Where did you get that name?" Draco asked distractedly as Harry maneuvered him toward the bed.

"I plucked it from your mother's mind. She was thinking about how much I looked like I could be related to the Potter's," he answered easily.

"You read her mind?" Draco asked, shouting and pushing Harry back.

The Nix merely shrugged casually. "Sure, why not. I needed an answer she would accept, so I took one she was already thinking of."

"You can't just invade people's privacy that way," Draco shouted.

Harry smiled softly and leaned in to kiss Draco, but the blonde turned away. "I've never done it to you," Harry promised.

"Really?" Draco asked, turning back to face him.

Harry made an 'X' over his chest with trailing fingertips and smiled. "Cross my heart."

Draco kissed him then, because it had taken all of his willpower to resist Harry's advances as long as he had. The Nix tasted of fresh spring water and Draco would have swallowed him whole if he could.

"You still shouldn't do it to my mother either, though," Draco rasped when they broke apart.

"And Lucius?" Harry asked.

Draco shrugged. "My father can take care of himself."

"But your mother is stronger than he is," Harry told him, looking confused.

Draco shook his head and laughed. "That's nonsense, where do you get that idea?"

"From them. I've met them both now, and your mother didn't fall under my charm as you father did," Harry told him.

"When did you meet my father?" Draco asked, looking feverish.

"Years ago," Harry said, pulling the blonde toward the bed.

Draco's jaw dropped and he shook off Harry's hand. "Did you… did you sleep with my father?"

Harry's tinkling laughter filled the room. "Would that make you jealous?"

"No, it would disgust me… did you?" Draco asked incredulously, feeling dirty just thinking that he had made love to someone who had bedded his own father.

"I've never been with another human," Harry confessed. "You are my one."

"And my father?" Draco pressed.

"He stumbled into my glade in much the same way as you did, but he was haughty and presumptuous, he dared to touch me before I gave him permission. He has hated me since, though he does not know that he does," the Nix answered.

"You took away his memory of it, just like you offered me," Draco whispered, more to himself than to Harry.

The Nix only nodded.

"How do I know you're telling me the truth?" Draco asked.

Harry smiled and kissed him, sending shivers down Draco's spine, but a moment later and he was no longer in his room, but instead he was standing in the faerie glade. Across the pool was Harry, looking just as beautiful as ever and at the edge of the green meadow was his father, only this man was not the Lucius that Draco knew, but his father in his early twenties, maybe even his age. It was uncanny how similar they looked at that age. If it weren't for the length of his father's hair, Draco would have sworn it was he in the glade staring at the Nix.

A victorious grin erupted on his father's face and Draco felt a stab of jealousy at the Nix's returning smile. "I found you," Lucius whispered reverently. "Do you know how long I've been searching?"

The familiar twinkling laugh of his Nix filled the glade as Harry bounded from his perch and landed gracefully in front of Lucius. "I know exactly how long you've been looking for me, yes."

"I can't sleep, I can't eat, I can't even think straight since I saw you in the garden," his father confessed, making Draco feel slightly ill at the thought of his own agony at being denied Harry's presence.

Harry flitted in delicate circles around Lucius, as if to study him from every possible angle. "What do you propose I do about that?" he asked, in a curious singsong voice.

"I must have you," Lucius replied firmly, reaching out to grab the shining and beautiful Nix, but Harry was far too swift and clever and easily avoided Lucius's grasp.

Harry shook an admonishing finger at Draco's father and shook his head sadly. "Far too presumptuous," he chastised.

Lucius's face twisted in despair, an emotion Draco had never once seen on his father's face before. "You must come back with me, you simply must. Don't you see? I'll never survive without you," Lucius begged, falling to his knees.

Draco wanted to sob, seeing his father so broken and weak over the same creature that had broken _him_ only days before made him shudder. It was uncanny seeing so much emotion so open on Lucius's face, he wondered briefly if even his mother had seen as much from his father as the Nix had that single night.

The Nix fell on him then, placing his sweet lips against Lucius's forehead and when he pulled away, the blonde's eyes were glazed over and unseeing. "You will find your bride tomorrow, she will be stunning and sweet and she will bare you a son. You will love your family and you will be very happy with them," he assured Lucius and in a daze, his father got up and left the forest glade, using the same path he had taken to find it in the first place.

Right before his eyes, the edge of the wood morphed and shifted, closing off the path his father had just used in patches of briar and Harry whirled around and looked right at him. "Wake up," the Nix told him, and Draco blinked against suddenly bright light, finding himself in his room once again, but flat on his back and half naked on his own bed.

"You," he breathed, looking up at the Nix. "You knew about me, even then."

The Nix smiled widely and wound himself around Draco's lithe form. "It would have been easy enough to predict a male heir to the Malfoy family."

"But that's not what you did is it?" Draco asked. "You didn't just predict any male heir, you orchestrated it, you made it happen, you made me… you knew it would be _me_." Draco's breathing became ragged as he thought of the implications of this new information. Did Harry seek him out on purpose that night a little over a week ago? How much of his life had Harry influenced with his magic?

Harry rolled his eyes and leaned in as if to kiss Draco's lips. "Stop being so overdramatic."

Draco loved his face away and scowled. "I'm not being overdramatic. You even dictated who my father would marry," Draco reprimanded. "Why should I trust you, what if you just designed yourself a little human pet, then voila, here I am, a perfectly besotted Malfoy heir for your enjoyment."

The edges of Harry's lips curled up as he smiled across the bed at Draco. "You're besotted with me?" he asked playfully.

"Is that really all you came away from that conversation with?" Draco asked with a roll of his eyes.

"Draco be logical for a moment. How could you think that you were not a pure product of your parents? You look nearly identical to your father, and yes, I put Narcissa in his path, but it's not as if I _made_ him choose her. Yes, I might have known how you would turn out, but I swear I only had intentions to watch you from afar," Harry told him plainly, but the amusement was still evident on his face.

"So what is this then? Some deviation in your master plan?" he replied, gesturing between their bodies.

"I have no mater plan, Draco. I go where I want, do what I want as long as I've been alive. My mood brings me to you now, to your side and to your bed. Do you refuse me?" Harry asked, his impish grin slipping into gentle pout.

Draco sighed and let his head fall to the pillow. "No, I would never, _could_ never refuse you," he replied grudgingly. "Fickle sprite," he added in a teasing tone, and said sprite leapt upon him with grace and swiftness.

"Good, then get me out of these human clothes before I go mad. I feel like a fop," the Nix groaned and Draco happily rid him of the last vestiges of clothing before letting himself fall under Harry's intoxicating spell once more.

Authors Note: So I've been packing all day, and I apologize but I my mind is frazzled and I can't come up with an appropriate giftie for reviewing, but please do anyway!


	7. Abandon

Chapter 7 Abandon

"We can't hide here all day," Draco whispered for his own benefit as well at Harry's.

They were lounging on Draco's forest green silk covered bed, staring up at the intricate plaster worked ceiling. Harry was drawing slow circles on Draco's bare chest and snickering to himself as the other boy shivered.

"We could actually," he replied. "Who would stop us?" he added, tracing the lines with his fingertip to extend the length of his torso and caress Draco's hips.

"My father for one, then there's mother and let's not forget that my fiancé is probably still downstairs," Draco groaned.

"Do you really think she would have waited downstairs for you all this time?" Harry asked, a hint of bitterness in his voice at the mention of the girl Draco was the theoretically marry.

"What time is it?" Draco asked. "It hasn't been that long."

"It's approaching dinnertime," the Nix mused contentedly.

Draco sat bolt upright in bed and looked out the window. Harry was right; the sun was begging to fade over the horizon of trees. They had been holed up in his room making love all day.

The Nix turned over and followed Draco's gaze, a soft smile forming on his face as he watched the lovely sunset. "Have you ever seen the sunset over the ocean? It's like a massive ball of fire being dipped right into the water. It's the most beautiful thing," he sighed.

"We've been up here for over six hours," Draco cried, scrambling for the end of the bed and ignoring Harry's musings. "I'm surprised father didn't hex the door down when I didn't show up at lunch."

"He would have had quite the visual if he had, but your mother is covering for us, no need to worry," Harry assured him with a casual wave and attempted to pull him back into bed.

Draco paled considerably and his eyes went wide. "What did you do to her?"

"Nothing unseemly I assure you," he replied. "It's the same ability that allows me to lure people with my music."

"How is that even remotely the same as mind control?" Draco demanded, angry at his sprite for being so casual about using his mother. "You play the violin, you don't brainwash them."

The Nix shook his head sadly and twisted on the bed so that he was lying on his stomach, facing Draco and the end of the bed. "It's not as simple as that. Everyone has a different musical signature that their body is atoned to. The same melody I would use to attract you would do nothing for other humans aside from sound nice."

"So then what did you do to my mother?" Draco asked curiously.

"I found her musical signature and I called to it, only with my words instead of my violin," Harry answered simply and made another grab for his lover.

"When?"

"When we spoke to her earlier. I let her hear in my inflection that I meant you no harm, and that we needed to be alone," Harry replied, this time moving with a swiftness that Draco could never match, and he deftly wrapped his body around the blonde. "Stay here with me," he whispered against his ear.

"I really should make an appearance at dinner," Draco moaned, unable to convince himself to pry his body away from the beautiful and sensual water sprite.

Harry pouted and pulled Draco closer. "And you'd just leave me up here all alone while you dally with your fiancé over dinner?"

"Come with me," Draco replied, gripping the other boy's hip roughly.

"And then we come back up here alone?" Harry asked, his black eyebrows raised in suspicion.

Draco ran the tip of his tongue along the Nix's bottom lip, causing the sprite to shiver. "Right back up here," he confirmed.

"Deal," Harry replied and flitted over to his discarded clothing in a blur of flesh and thick black hair.

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As they made their way down the great marble staircase, Draco stopped when he saw his fiancé standing at the bottom of the landing.

"Pansy," he called.

"I haven't seen you all day," she pouted. "Who is this man that has whisked you away from me?"

Draco swallowed thickly at her choice of words, but placed a pale hand on Harry's shoulder and prepared to introduce him.

"I'm Harry. Harry Potter," the Nix said, offing his hand for Pansy to place her more delicate one inside and then he raised it to his lips, placing a chaste kiss on it before letting it swiftly drop.

Pansy flushed deeply and curtsied in response. "And Mister Potter, what business did you have with my future husband that took an entire afternoon?"

Harry nearly answered her with truth, wanting the bovine woman to scurry away in tears and leave him and Draco alone, but Draco cleared his throat and answered for him. "We've been catching up. Harry's to be my best man in the wedding."

Draco could feel more than see the scowl upon Harry's lips, and could sense the subtle change in his voice as he confirmed Draco's words.

"Oh dear, I wish I had known. I've asked Millicent to be my matron of honor and she'll look just dreadful next to such a handsome best man," she cooed.

"You've asked Bulstrode the Toad to be in our wedding party?" Draco groaned.

Pansy frowned up at Draco and crossed her arms over her chest in defiance. "It's one thing for me to say something of her looks, I'm her best friend, but quite another for you to poke fun at her. I doubt you even know her," she huffed and turned promptly to Harry. "Nice to meet you Mr. Potter. I'll see you both in the dining room," he added curtly before storming off.

"Did she honestly just reprimand me for doing exactly as she did?" Draco whispered, more to himself then to Harry.

"Seems that way. Aren't you happy not to be marrying her after all?" the Nix teased.

"What?" Draco asked. "What do you mean?"

Harry's forehead creased at the reply. "I mean, you'll have me now, no need for her."

"I- are you serious?" Draco asked with wide eyes.

"Of course I'm serious," Harry replied. "What did you think today was about? I sacrificed the wood for you."

"What does that mean?"

"I chose you over my glade, I chose to be with you rather than live in my spring, which if I remain away it will eventually shorten my lifespan and dissipate my magic," Harry whispered.

"But that's – that's… I never asked you to do that," Draco responded, feeling shaken and torn.

"You told me you wanted to be with me, this is the only way," Harry told him firmly.

"But if we stay here, I have to marry Pansy." Draco told him. "My father will force me."

"You let your father rule too many of your decisions. When will you see that you are stronger than he is?" Harry asked, his arms folded across his chest, mimicking the way he had seen Pansy get angry just a few moments before.

"I'm not," Draco protested.

"Then perhaps I should have chosen him after all," Harry responded and stormed away in the direction Pansy had.

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When Draco arrived at the dinner table, everyone was already seated and his usual place was occupied by Harry, who grinned at him mischievously. Looking at the table, Draco quickly assessed that his options were to sit next to Harry, next to Pansy or beside his father and across from them both, so he chose the latter, trying to ignore Harry's sparkling green eyes watch him take the path of least resistance.

He caught the nearly imperceptible shake of the head, and could feel the Nix's disappointment flow off of him like sheets of rain. What he failed to notice right away was the curious look his father was giving their newest guest.

"Mr. Potter is it?" Lucius asked when Draco had taken his seat and the first dish appeared.

Harry stirred his pumpkin soup and nodded. "Harry, sir."

Lucius shook his head as if in a daze and Draco shot Harry a warning look, trying to keep him from tampering with his father's mind. "I don't recall Lily and James having a son who was Draco's age."

"Perhaps that is because I'm older then Draco," Harry mused with a knowing smile.

"How much older?" Narcissa asked. "You don't look a day over nineteen."

"You're very kind, but I assure you I am much older than your son," Harry replied with a wink.

Narcissa blushed and smiled sweetly. "And were you tutored as well?"

Draco caught the flicker of Harry's eyes as the sprite considered plucking the answer from his mother's mind yet again, but instead he just replied with a simple 'yes'.

Suddenly Draco wished he had sat next to the lovely Nix so that he could make some small physical gesture as thanks for keeping his promise and not invading his family's minds.

"You seem so familiar," Lucius whispered, more to himself than to the other guests, though Draco was close enough to have heard it and began to panic slightly.

"You've probably seen him in town," Draco offered. "That was where I met him after all."

"I'm sure that's all it is," Harry confirmed, looking deep into Lucius's eyes and willing him to believe it.

The elder Malfoy's forehead creased as he tried to concentrate past the illusion Harry was painting for him. Lucius was being shown a familiar little shop where he tended to buy his pipe weed, and at the same time he approached the door, Harry exited, nodding a polite 'hello' and continuing his journey away from the shop.

Lucius blinked several times and shook his head vaguely. "That must be it, I seem to recall you at Timber and Potts," he said at last, seeming to believe the careful picture Harry had painted in his mind.

"I frequent that shop, yes," Harry lied with a casual nod.

Sitting beside him, Pansy started drinking from her water glass, but let out a frustrated sob when no water would come out of it. There was clearly water in it, but not a drop would fall into her mouth no mater how high she tipped it, when suddenly, after turning the glass upside down, she found it's contents soaking her lap.

Harry snickered silently, and even Draco had to stifle a laugh, though he quickly changed it to a frown, which he directed at Harry for his mischief.

"Come dear, we'll get you all cleaned up," Narcissa cooed and pulled Pansy from the table and toward her quarters.

"I can't take much more of this," Pansy whispered to Draco's mother. "It seems as if this house is out to get me."

"Harry, a word in the kitchen," Draco ordered though gritted teeth. Harry only nodded and followed the boy into the expansive house elf run kitchen.

"What in Merlin's name do you think you're doing?" Draco demanded as soon as the door was closed.

"I do nothing in Merlin's name, what I do is in _our_ name," Harry offered lightly. He hated the itchy feeling of his human clothes and the fact that Draco kept avoiding a choice made him feel on edge, but he refused to show the ungrateful boy that he was getting to him.

Draco sighed and leaned against a large metal table, rubbing his eyes with his palms. "I'm sorry, this is all so hard," he admitted.

"I thought you knew what you wanted," Harry chided. "I thought you wanted me, but now here you are pulling me aside because of a few small pranks at that witch's expense. Tell me Draco, who do you want, me or her?"

"You, of course you, but it's not that simple. I have responsibilities as a Malfoy that I can't just abandon because I love you," Draco shouted, pleading for Harry to understand.

"Because you see what I abandoned for you as such a paltry thing?" Harry asked, his voice rising like the tide, threatening to sweep Draco under. "Do not mistake my playful nature for idiocy," he warned. "I have walked this earth for longer then Malfoy's have existed, longer even than humans have existed. I may not be proficient in the ways of the human heart, but I am not so naïve to see when I am being played for a fool."

Draco opened his mouth to protest, but no words filled his throat. Harry shook his head and padded to the door. "I'll be in the guest quarters until you make your decision or until week's end, whichever comes first."

With that, the sprite flitted from the room and Draco was left staring at the blank white door and wondering how he could have possibly landed in such a mess.

Authors Note: Because of the move I'm falling slightly behind with my writing. I have no other chapters written after this, but so far the poll has this as one of the favorites right now, so I'll be focusing on trying to catch it up next week. The poll will be open on my yahoo group until Tuesday if anyone else would like to join and vote.


	8. Waste Not Want Not

Authors note: Many thanks to my beta for this story, Shannon! Go team awesome. I'm posting this chapter early because there is a chance I might not have internet tomorrow... moving is so time consuming!!

Chapter 8 Waste Not Want Not

Harry quickly grew weary of the human world, a place where he so clearly didn't belong.

In the immediate days after his fight with Draco, Harry found himself wandering the vast and expansive corridors of Malfoy Manor alone and wondering how he had tricked himself into thinking that this was a good idea.

He loved Draco surely; it was not a question of that. In fact, it was clearly that love, an emotion he had never felt for a human being, which brought him to the manor, to Draco's side.

What he couldn't be sure of is whether or not Draco was ready, or ever would be ready for a relationship with someone like him. He didn't seem to have the maturity or the willpower to make his own decisions, and the Nix refused to make them for him. Draco would either choose to be with him, or he wouldn't. It was very black and white

As Harry wandered down the stairs, trailing his hand along the rich wooden banister he came across Pansy, who was sitting on the bottom stair, her head buried in her hands and her delicate shoulders shaking with her silent sobs.

"What bothers you, lady?" Harry asked, though truthfully he hardly cared. He was merely bored with wandering hall after hall filled with magical portraits that sneered at him with the same Malfoy lips that he was furious at.

Pansy looked up at him, her expression startled and her face patchy with red. She wiped her small pale hands across her face and smeared the tear dampened make up around her cheeks. "Draco broke off the engagement," she sobbed, reaching over to hug Harry for comfort, but Harry dodged her arms and let her careen into the banister.

"He left you?" Harry asked, not bothering to mask his sudden glee at the idea of Draco making a choice and the choice being him.

"Yes," she cried. "And he was a right prat about it too. He says he's in love with someone else, but he had to be lying because his mother's never even seen him with another girl."

Harry laughed before he could stop himself, and the laugh wasn't as human as he would have normally made sure of. His happiness was making him reckless and the bell-like sound that escaped his lips made Pansy shudder.

"What is so funny?" she demanded, stomping her tiny foot on the granite stair.

"Perhaps it's not another woman you're being left for," he mused with a knowing grin.

Pansy looked confused for a moment, her brow creasing into an unattractive frown, but then Harry's words sunk in and she began to gape. "Do you think Draco's… no he couldn't be, could he?" she stuttered, not really looking at Harry anymore, but rather staring off into space. "But then who would he-" the question was cut off in midstream by her own sharp gasp and she slowly turned to face Harry, her eyes widening dramatically.

"You?" she asked.

Harry shrugged and trotted up the gleaming staircase toward Draco's quarters. "I suppose I'll find out soon enough," he called back over his shoulder.

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Draco felt retched and mildly afraid.

Pansy had come to his room early that morning seeking to talk to him about their upcoming wedding. He had been avoiding her and Harry both, trying to clear his head and figure out what he was going to do, but he could hardly turn her away when she showed up at his door.

She had come in, sat on the edge of his bed and patted the spot beside her coyly. Draco reluctantly followed her instruction but regretted it immediately as she placed her hand on his thigh and began massaging it while she spoke of decorations and guest lists.

After a brief pause, he looked over at her and she tried to kiss him.

He was barely able to dodge her and when he successfully moved away he just blurted everything. He told her that he didn't love her, and that he loved someone else and that he wasn't going to marry her either.

It hadn't been pretty, but eventually she stormed from the room in search of Narcissa and he knew it was only a matter of time before his father came looking for him to give him a strict lecture and who knows what more.

When the knock sounded at his door he was reluctant to answer it, but his father couldn't be put off. To his immense relief however, it was the Nix who graced his doorstep, looking bright and as sexy as ever.

There was a reason he had avoided Harry, and that was because it was impossible for him to think with the stunning man within his line of sight. "Harry," he whispered.

"I hear you have news," he mentioned, leaning in close.

"I left her," Draco responded, admitting it out loud for the first time.

"For me?" Harry asked, more tentative and unsure then Draco had ever heard him.

"Clearly," Draco responded with a flourishing wave across Harry's body. "I could never choose her over you."

Harry smiled and pushed his way into Draco's room, coaxing the blonde toward the bed and straddling him when he finally had him there. "I think this calls for a celebration," he purred in Draco's ear.

Draco writhed beneath him and nodded, letting the Nix pin him to the bed and lick hot trails down his neck with his tongue. Any and all scraps of clothing were quickly banished to the corner before Harry entered him, his flesh just as silky as the first time, and his movements just as erotic.

Somehow Harry was able to roll him and twist him and it always felt perfect. Draco moaned for him, because he knew how much the Nix loved it when he was vocal, but the sound didn't elicit the usual smug grin, but rather instead his head twisted to the side and he looked as though he was concentrating on something else.

Draco tried to pull his mind away from the glorious heat spreading through his body, but by the time he realized something was wrong it was too late and the door opened, revealing his father's furious face.

Harry covered Draco with a sheet in a lightning quick movement, and Draco saw his father blink and his down deepen. "What the hell do you think you're doing with my son?" he boomed.

Stepping away from Draco with feather soft footfalls Harry padded over to Lucius, still nude and glowing with an ethereal light. "We should talk about this another time Lucius," he said firmly and Draco watched as his fathers face bent and contorted before nodding and walking briskly from the room.

"You did it again," Draco whispered, shaking his head in disbelief. "Can you not refrain from entering my parent's minds?"

"Would you rather him do as he was intending?" Harry asked him with arms folded over his chest in defiance.

"Isn't there some other way?" Draco asked.

"Yes, there is," Harry answered. "You can tell your father about us so that I don't have to continue forming lies in his mind."

Draco groaned and fell back onto the bed, letting the sheet slip beside him in a pool of ice blue fabric. "Why can't we just keep this to ourselves?" Draco asked. "I can promise not to marry Pansy, not matter what my father threatens and you can stay here and we can be together in secret."

Harry strolled, still naked over to sit next to Draco. "Is that what you really want?" he asked, his face a blank mask.

"Yes," Draco said with a nod.

"Fine," Harry replied, sighing and running his fingers over the pillow before getting up and quickly dressing.

"Where are you going?" Draco asked, spooked by Harry's sullen behavior and sudden departure.

"I need to take care of your father," he replied as he went for the door.

"What are you going to do?" Draco asked, panic filling his voice.

"Whatever I have to in order to grant your wish," Harry sighed, turned the knob and left before Draco could say another word.

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Lucius was located easily enough.

He wandered the garden as if searching for something, and Harry had an idea of who he was looking for.

Him; only not the human looking incarnation, but rather the lithe water sprite.

Draco infuriated him to no end, but he didn't suppose he could expect much more from a human boy who was a mere fraction of his own age. He could play along for a bit, so long as Draco promised to be faithful. Eventually he would tire of the game, but then maybe so might Draco.

"Lucius," he called, and the man whirled on his, all blonde hair and pointed features. To most people Lucius and Narcissa looked so similar that it was hard to tell which traits he got from which parent, but to Harry it was simple.

Lucius's chin was very sharp, whereas Draco's was slightly rounded, taking after his mother. Though Draco's eyes were the same steely gray as his father's they sometimes contained a tint of his mother's icy blue. His face was less pointed than his fathers' helped by Narcissa's genetics, but Draco's skin matched the milky pale luminescence of his mother's precisely.

"I know you," Lucius hissed, stepping into the invisible circle Harry usually kept around himself to keep his distance from humans.

"I've been staying here for several days, of course you know me," Harry replied easily, unwilling to back away and yield a small victory to the taller man.

"You're hiding in this skin," Lucius continued as if not hearing a word Harry uttered," but I know what you really are."

"I am no one of consequence," Harry said, and put all of his magic into his words, but it was no use. Something was different about Lucius; something was off.

"I took a potion this morning, one that would allow me to see the truth of you. Your presences has bothered me since you've arrived but every time I've felt close to discovering the truth, my mind get befuddled and I lose the answers I was so close to grasping," Lucius whispered as he trailed his index finger along Harry's jaw.

The Nix refused to shudder or shrink away as he would like to do. The touch of Draco's father, despite their similar looks, felt worlds apart. Lucius's fingers were cold and rough, where Draco's were warm and soft as satin.

"Why do you come here to torment me?" Lucius whispered.

"I'm here for your son, Lucius," Harry said truthfully. "This was never about you."

"Liar!" Lucius shouted, raising a hand to strike the Nix across the face but seemed to think better of it. "You expect me to think you came here for Draco?"

"It's the truth," Harry replied simply. "I love him."

"You cannot love, you're incapable of it," Lucius spat. "I came to you, I loved you and you turned me away. You took something from me and I don't even recall what it is, but I feel the void in my mind where you used to reside."

"I never resided there, only your obsession with me did," Harry countered, ignoring Lucius's head shaking in protest.

"You will stay away from my son," he demanded.

"There is nothing you can do to force me," Harry replied, a knowing smile forming on his lips.

The smile must have snapped something in Lucius's brain and he lashed out, grabbing the Nix's face and pulling him close to his own. "Take me in exchange for my son. I'll give you more than he ever could," he pleaded and kissed Harry deeply, startling him into paralysis.

Once he was thinking clearly he pushed the man away and spat on the ground, trying to rid the taste of Lucius from his mouth. Draco's father tasted of aggression and anger and nothing in him tasted like Draco.

His body started to glow as he shed the human glamour. Growling, his voice as menacing as any wild beast, he pointed at Lucius and narrowed his eyes. "You will never touch me again. You will leave Draco and I alone, and you will let us be happy."

Lucius nodded dumbly, as he grabbed at his throat trying to get air that the Nix was denying him.

As Harry lowered his hand and walked back toward the manor he felt a ripple of regret. No doubt Draco wouldn't like that he had threatened his father, but surely he would understand when he explained.

He didn't have to wait long to explain as he found Draco, eyes staring blankly at the stairs, standing just outside his room.

"Draco?" Harry called, going straight to him.

"I saw you," he breathed, his gray eyes filled with hurt.

"I'm sorry, Draco," Harry apologized at once. "I had to, I couldn't possibly let him separate us."

"So you kiss him?" Draco asked incredulously, but the Nix could only blink in surprise.

"That's why you're angry?" he asked, puzzled.

"You've been fucking him the entire time haven't you?" Draco shouted.

"Goddess, no," Harry replied. "He kissed me, I made him stop!"

"It didn't look that way from here!" Draco shouted.

Harry sighed and tried to calm down his lover, but to no avail. "Draco listen to me, I swear I never kissed him."

"I saw you!" Draco shouted.

"I know what you saw, but that was your father attacking me. I have never and will never be attracted to him, it's you I want," Harry tried to assure him.

"Well I don't want you!" Draco yelled. "I don't want to see you ever again!"

Harry's entire body tensed as he tried to discern whether or not Draco was being honest, but he couldn't see. The boy's mind was so clouded with a jealous anger that no thought could be read outside of that emotion.

He wouldn't listen, he wouldn't see, he wouldn't open his mind to the possibility that Harry was telling the truth. The Nix shook his head and placed a delicate kiss on Draco's forehead. "You're too young," he said with a sigh. "You're too unsure and too angry."

Draco's face heated up and his lips set into a thin line, but Harry was tired. He was weary from the games and from the hiding and he grew more and more despondent being away from the water, away from his glade.

A flicker of light flashed through his vision and like a bolt he flew out the window, his body now a small blue bird, and landed once on the window sill to see Draco's set and determined face before flying away and into the wood, glad to leave the human world behind him even if that happiness did not extend to leaving Draco behind as well.

He loved Draco dearly, but it seemed wasteful to give up his life and his magic for someone who didn't even want him.

Authors Note: pout. Well, I hope you're enjoying the story so far. For anyone interested the move is going well so far, and I officially live in the house I bought a little over a week ago! It's nice getting to sleep here instead of just visiting it occasionally. I'll be posting pictures up on Myspace and Facebook soon if anyone cares. lol.


	9. Teardrop

Authors Note: Many thanks to my brilliant beta, Shannon! She helped me decide on a title for this chapter! I know a lot of you felt that Draco wasn't ready for Harry and I whole heartedly agreed, so now, it is the mission of this story to MAKE Draco worthy of Harry's love. It was always meant to take on this note, and I now give you the beginning of that transformation.

Chapter 9 Teardrop

The regret that assaulted Draco's mind and heart was not immediate; rather it took days to find him, but when it did, it was a sudden and vicious thing.

He spent the first few days after Harry's flight grumbling about the audacity of the water sprite to trick him so, to think that he could sleep with both him and his father and expect leniency. He spent a few days afterward wondering if he might be mistaken in part by what he saw the night Harry had fled and at the end of the week confronted his father directly.

Draco found him standing in the garden watching the forest edge. Lucius had spent most evenings there. As the sun dipped over the trees creating a twinkling pink and lavender luminescence over the foliage, he would stare until the world was cast into twilight and then he would retire without a word to his wife or son.

"Father," Draco asked softly, trying to pull him out of his thoughts without startling him.

"He said it was you," his father whispered as if sleepwalking. It made no sense to Draco until he elaborated. "He said he was here for you and not me. I can't believe that, after all these years of pining after him…I just can't believe that."

"Father, you didn't?" Draco whispered, suddenly understanding what his father had done and clutching his chest in sudden agony at the loss of Harry over such a ridiculous misunderstanding.

Lucius turned then and looked as though he was seeing Draco for the first time. "Don't worry my son. I drove him away. I told him that if he didn't want me than he couldn't have you."

"I love him!" Draco shouted, falling to his knees. "I thought he was sleeping with both of us, and I told him to leave and never come back! But it was you, this whole time I was angry with him and it should have been you!"

"Both of us?" his father asked and Draco was dimly aware of the violent spark roiling through his father's eyes. "You've bedded the Nix?"

Draco's answer came in the form of a sob and a nod, as he could not seem to get his vocal cords to work.

His father rounded on him, slapping Draco across the face and sending the smaller boy reeling to the pavement. "He was mine!" the man shouted in a crazed howl and raised his hand to strike again.

He closed his eyes and prepared himself for Lucius's blow, bracing his body against a large plaster column, but the pain never came and when he opened his eyes, he found a thin veil of light stilling his father's movements.

With a quick glance around he saw his mother, her wand raised and pointed at Lucius's chest and a fierce look in her eyes. "You will not touch my son," she told him firmly and through gritted teeth.

"He is _our_ son," Lucius spat.

"The moment you chose to strike him he ceased to be yours," Narcissa countered. "I will kill you if you touch him even once more."

Draco's eyes widened to match those of his fathers. Both seemed reluctant at first to believe her words until they saw the piercing determination in her eyes.

"You wouldn't," Lucius challenged stupidly.

His mother's eyes narrowed in concentration and anger and though Draco couldn't tell what spell she was using against his father, he knew it must have been potent, because he began to whimper for her to stop, and Draco had never heard his father beg. Not ever.

"You will leave the manor and you will never come back," she growled and Lucius nodded at once, looking as if he would fall to his knees if his wife's spell hadn't held him erect.

When she released him, Lucius did fall, his knees and palms scrapping roughly on the stone path. Narcissa held her hand out to Draco, who took it and watched his mother's face with awe, while she led him from the garden and up to his room.

She sat with him, Draco curled under the covers of his bed and Narcissa sitting demurely on the edge of it, until the shock of his father attacking him wore away and his original panic over losing Harry resurfaced. He sobbed into his pillow while his mother stroked his back and part of him knew the world as he knew it was over.

Harry was gone, his father was banished and crazy and he had broken his engagement to Pansy all in the span of a week. He had ruined his own life and his own future with his ignorance and hotheaded nature.

"You sent Pansy away for that boy, didn't you?" she asked softly once Draco's shaking had decreased.

Draco only nodded and Narcissa clucked her tongue. "You could have told me," she noted. "I only ever want your happiness my son, and if that means I give you up to a woodland faerie instead of your arranged match than so be it."

Draco's eyes widened and he looked up into his mother's soft loving eyes. "You knew about him?"

Narcissa chuckled and smoothed her son's hair as she spoke. "I recognized him almost at once as the same boy who came to me years ago and told me of my potential marriage to Lucius. I would never have agreed to wed that arrogant brute, but he promised me that I would have a beautiful and perfect baby boy, and he fulfilled his promise by giving me you."

A flood of conflict filled him at his mother's words. Knowing she would love him no matter what helped him immensely, but knowing that Harry, his Harry, had played some instrumental role in his very creation made him feel like weeping all over again. "And father?" Draco asked, not sure he could imagine his mother staying all alone in the sterile marble home that was Malfoy Manor.

"I can manage just fine without him. He was rarely a presence in my life as it was. My gardens will keep me happy, and my sisters and friends will visit often now that Lucius is gone," she mused.

"Do you really think he'll leave?" Draco asked, concerned as much for her safety as for his own.

"He already has. I've put a tracking spell on him; I'll know where he is at all times. He has always underestimated me, but tonight I showed him what both a Black and a mother can do," she said, her voice sounding slightly fiercer at the final words.

He had always known his mother was powerful. Draco had never spent too many days of his life with illness because his mother would heal him thoroughly and with ease every time, but even he had thought little about what other magic his mother might have up her silken sleeve. "What did you do to him?" Draco asked at last, very curious as to what spell his mother used to drive Lucius to a whimpering mass.

Narcissa sighed and shook her head, smoothing out Draco's blankets as she stood up. "I'd rather you not worry over it. It was a fitting punishment for _Lord_ Malfoy and he will not be returning for more, I assure you."

Draco nodded, knowing he would get no more out of his mother that night. "I love you," he whispered and Narcissa smiled warmly and kissed her son's forehead.

"I love you too, Draco and I always will," she replied before gliding to the door. "Try and get some sleep and tomorrow you can go after your love."

The lights flicked off with a wave of her wand and Draco shut his eyes, but it was no use. Sleep would never come to him, as he was too distressed for slumber to find him.

He reluctantly removed himself from the warmth of his bed and went to the window, looking for a bright blue bird, or even some other incarnation that could have been his Nix, but he saw nothing and no one in the darkness below.

His heart clenched painfully as he thought of Harry in his glade without him. No word from him in days and the manner with which he was driven away made Draco wonder if he would ever see him again, but he quickly shook the thoughts away and resolved to go into the forest in search for his love at dawn's first light.

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Harry wept.

He let the tears of sorrow and regret fall from his face and soak the rich black soil under his feet. Where each drop of salty water landed, a single thorny vine appeared until there was a wall around the Nix's glade as thick as the wall around his heart.

He had been wrong to think that Draco could be meant for him, wrong to think that his own interference in the Malfoy's lives could have manufactured a human that would be his perfect companion. It had seemed that way for a brief moment but quickly fell apart all around him and he was just happy that the forest had accepted him back with open arms.

The forest would never leave him and he would have to be content to have Mother Nature as his one true companion. He tried not to doubt his love for Draco, tried not to imagine it as falsities brought on by the sheer loneliness of his existence, but nearly failed.

He started to think that loneliness was the only thing that drove him to Draco's bed, but then he realized that before Draco, he didn't know loneliness, and it was only now that he felt the very human emotion coursing through his veins.

Only now that Draco had driven him away did he feel truly lonely.

He had fallen like a spooked deer into a trap. He had fallen for Draco's face and then his heart and then had it yanked out from under him like a magician's trick. Now you see it, now you don't.

The wall was there to protect him from falling again. To ensure that some distant Malfoy heir, no doubt a product of Draco and that dreadful Pansy girl, would not stumble into his glade the way Draco had, and also to protect him from Draco's own fickle nature.

Draco had once called him that, his fickle faerie, but it was Draco who couldn't make up his mind, Draco who cast a spell on his heart and then threw it out the open window and Draco who would have to suffer the consequences.

That wasn't entirely true though, as Harry suffered as well, but he knew it would pass. It would have to. Humans always said that time heals all things, and what did the Nix have if not time?

Maybe in ten years he would forget, or fifty or a hundred. Though he hoped it would not take more than that to forget Draco's pale and perfect face and his pouting pink lips or the way he screamed his name when his orgasm exploded through him.

Name.

The name 'Harry Potter' given to him by the glowing child back when his devotion seemed true could not be used anymore. Part of him wished he could use his own magic to ease the memory from his mind, the same way he had done to Lucius.

It was difficult even being in his own glade, with the wind whipping his hair and the cool water like a sweet kiss on his skin, even these things, _his_ things, were touched by memories of Draco.

The entire season was marred by the child's presence and disappearance.

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Draco stumbled through the forest, unable to even wait until dawn, and he found the path more treacherous than ever before.

Every turn he made seemed to look different than it should, paths which had been clear of underbrush just a moment before, suddenly stood overgrown and impossible to traverse in the next glance.

The ground seemed to relish in tripping him, making him sprawl face first in the dirt and mud repeatedly as he made his slow journey through the wood.

By lunchtime he had taken eight different paths and each one – after scraping him with branches and bruising him with stones – managed to lead him back to his own garden and nowhere near the center of the wood where he wanted to go.

It was as if the forest didn't want him there and kept maneuvering him away.

He took a break at his mother's insistence, only enough time to eat a bowl of soup and a scrap of bread, and then continued his mission unsuccessfully until nightfall.

On his final try that night he called out desperately, his voice ringing out across the trees. "Harry, please! I love you, please come back!" he cried and the forest wavered slightly and two different paths presented themselves before him.

Draco tilted his head to the side in question and saw a third path grow up in front of him like a mirage and felt a cool breeze on the back of his neck form a single word against his ear. "Choose," it whispered, like the barest of breaths.

The far right path was darker than the rest and heavy with prickling underbrush. The middle path was fragrant, warm and seemingly straight, and then the far left path was filled with glittering moonlight, but blocked at several points by jagged and ominous branches.

Taking a deep breath he took a step toward the center path and feeling sure of himself, he continued along it, never pausing to smell the brilliant and colorful flowers that lined the trail.

After several minutes he thought for certain he had chosen correctly and that any moment the Nix's glade would appear but he groaned as his garden came into view instead and he collapsed into the cool grass of his lawn, silent sobs wracking his body.

Draco barely felt his mother lift him from the grass, didn't acknowledge her wipe away his tears and hardly registered being placed in his own bed for the night.

His body growled at him for not being able to locate Harry, his heart cried out at him for hurting it so thoroughly and his brain chastised him for choosing the wrong path.

Sleep eluded him once again as he thought of his Nix, his beautiful and luminescent skin, his flowing black hair and his fierce green eyes. He thought of the way it felt to be held in Harry's arms, strong and lasting. He thought of Harry's lips and the soft yet firm way they would feel against his own.

He sighed and whispered Harry's name into the night, knowing he would get no answer.

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Authors Note: I know, it's sad, but have faith in me dear readers. Please check out my yahoo group and my other story Poppet, and accept a Narcissa Action Figure, complete with Lucius battling wand arm.


	10. The Dark Path

Authors Note: Many thanks to my beta Shannon for her work on this fic

Chapter 10 The Dark Path

Autumn gave way to winter, which brought heaping piles of powdery white snow into the Nix's glade. Normally he would carve lifelike woodland creatures into its icy depth, but he only watching from his frozen pool with mild interest, as the snow would fall, melt and fade away into the frigid ground once more.

When the last of the snow melted and his pool was a rippling liquid once more, the Nix watched as the plants grew high and flourished in the spring hair, growing hundreds of glittering flowers in every color imaginable. But instead of adorning his head with crowns of herbs and roses, he plucked away each one that he saw and crushed it with the weight of his hand or his foot until his rock was covered in a pallet of colorful smears.

Summer was bearable only because he spent most of his time beneath the surface of his pool, hiding deep so that the vibrant green light streaming through the treetops wouldn't reach his eyes.

As autumn came again he was reminded of his first meeting with Draco; saving him from the brook horse, and their passionate first kiss. A spell had been cast that night, unintentional, but cast just the same and he hated the fact that though he was superior to his human counterpart, he was not immune to the destruction caused by that spell.

Worse then any season though, was the night. Every night, no matter what the climate, brought him a sense of grief so strong he could almost wrap his fingers around it like a tangible thing. It clutched at his heart, daring him to look at the moon, the pale gray and shimmering orb that always reminded him of Draco's eyes.

The water smoothed rocks felt jagged and rough beneath Harry's body as he lounged lazily in the center of his faerie pool. The sunlight was too harsh on his eyes, which were swollen and blotchy from sobbing, so he kept them shut and tried to ignore the random autumn leaf that would fall from the boughs of the tree and land carelessly on his chest or legs.

The fluffy top of a nearby pussy willow kept bending in the breeze and tickling Harry's bare abdomen, and he would swat it away each time. A school of shiny golden fish swam by him, nibbling at his foot, which was draped haphazardly in the cool spring water, until he pulled it out and away from their attention.

When a tawny hawk swooped in from its perch above him, nudging his violin with his sharp pointed beak, the Nix had finally had enough. "I don't feel like playing," he shouted, opening his eyes for the first time in hours and shooing the mighty bird away.

He turned to face the wood; plants, trees and animals alike, and he growled, "I just want to be left alone."

The entire forest bristled around him, the branches screaming words through the breeze that no human would hear or understand. The Nix did, however, and he stood on top of his rock cluster and raised his arms against the onslaught. "I grieve!" he yelled. "My heart is broken and I cannot find the strength to mend it."

The plants shuddered at his words, green and crimson leaves falling to the ground all around his glade, but he didn't back down. "I know what you think of me, that I'm foolish and weak, and you're right," he spat. "I fell for a human, there is very little I could do more foolish than that."

A thin black snake emerged from behind him and wove around his ankle, up his calf and kept climbing Harry's body until he scooped the small serpent up and held him up to his face. A shallow hiss escaped its scaly mouth, punctuated by a vibrant red forked tongue and glistening ivory fangs.

"The Malfoy boy broke your heart," it hissed, and Harry nodded solemnly. "He's been in our forest every night for the past six years," the snake told him.

"What?" the Nix asked, not sure he liked knowing it had been so long since he left Draco's side. He also hated the realization that Draco couldn't find his way to him. His eyes flicked briefly to the massive thicket of spiny thorn bushes that surrounded his glade. They had grown over thirty feet tall in the years since he had isolated himself inside their deadly walls.

Perhaps it was time he took them down and let Draco find him.

The snake shook its sleek black head in response. "He's learned nothing. Every night we test him to see if he has become worthy of you, and every night he fails. If he passed even one of our tests, he would find his way to you. We hate to see you so forlorn, but you must give up on this boy."

Harry sighed and put the snake back onto the rock, where he slithered away, camouflaged by the slick black stone, to his home in the center of it.

He knew better than anyone the folly that it was to continue to hold onto hope. Hope that Draco would come for him, hope that he would have grown and matured. Hope that he would be capable of feeling a love for him that was even a fraction of what he felt.

But Draco was trying. Every night he sought him, every night he allowed himself to be tested by the wood, every night Draco thought about him enough to venture from his warm bed and into the brisk night air and dark foreboding forest.

That had to mean something, right?

Six years. He could hardly believe it had been so long and his mind began to wander, thinking of what Draco must look like, what he must feel like after so much time. There were no differences in himself, his body and appearance remained the same eternally, but Humans aged quickly, wizards less so, but still the change would be obvious. He wondered if he still fit against the boy as he did before, if there was still a niche carved out of Draco's flesh where he could be held and find peace.

"Enough!" the Nix shouted into the air, falling to his knees with a heavy crack. "It must end! Take me; please just take me into your earthen embrace at last. I need peace, I need silence, I need a world without Draco Malfoy in it!" he begged.

The rocks beneath him shook in answer, and he waited, waited to be swallowed up by the forest, waited to go to his final place of rest, waited to finally be rid of the mortal world and his too human thoughts for good. But nothing happened.

"You're not ready," the forest answered at last, making Harry sob once more into his hands and he fell into the water, letting the cool spring mask his tears and trying not to hear the world continue moving around him in its taunting dance.

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Draco prodded at his own reflection in the large gilded mirror his room afforded him.

His skin had somehow gotten paler. He hadn't thought it was possible to have a more porcelain hue than he had before, but six years of isolating yourself inside would apparently do that. His hair remained untrimmed, and now rested in a sleek ribbon tied at the nape of his neck and flowed down his back to pool slightly when he sat.

His once sparkling silver eyes had dulled, and there were permanent black rings under them at all times, as he slept very little. He ate even less, and his body was proof of it. He was always thin, but he was unhealthy looking and looked nearly as hollow as he felt.

Narcissa ensured that he stayed well groomed, but she had been away visiting her sister for over a week and thick blonde stubble graced Draco's chin in her absence. It made him look scruffy and if not the expensive fabrics he wore, a person might think him homeless.

Though to be honest, his clothes were ill fitting, as he refused to leave the Manor grounds for even a moment to go into town, fearing that Harry would choose that same moment to finally visit him once more. He relied on his mother to buy things for him, or for his tailor to visit him at the Manor, which was infrequently.

He had been made into a cautionary tale. Parents used the story of the beautiful and wealthy child who was set up to have everything, but disobeyed and ventured into the dark forest only to be enchanted by a monster, who stole his soul away and left him an empty shell.

Sometimes he wondered if it was the truth, if his mind had played tricks on him as it had his father and if Harry really was just a monster and if he should have just stayed out of the forest that day. He would be married by now; he'd most likely have at the very least one child to call his own and he'd be happy.

He couldn't even remember what happy felt like.

The feel of Harry's lips, the smell of his hair, the bell-like quality of his voice were all things that made him happy, and all those things were slowly fading from his memory with each day that passed.

Draco could barely recall the gemstone gleam of his emerald eyes, or how his thick hair would fall around them both like an obsidian blanket when they made love, or how captivating it was to watch him flow from one form into another like liquid being poured from glass to glass.

He should have captured the fickle sprite, held him close and never let him go. He was a fool, and he reaped a fool's reward.

Every night he ventured into the forest and each time the enchanted wood gave him a choice. Sometimes it was paths, just like the first night, sometimes he had to pick between three mushrooms to eat, or which animal to follow. The next mornings he would wake up on the forest floor with twigs and leaves in his hair and dew on his skin, but no Harry.

That night was no different and as he ventured into the wood, he tripped and stumbled to the spot where the forest tended to communicate with him. As he sat on a rotting log and waited for his test, a thin black snake made its way over to him. He peeked down at the serpent unwaveringly. It was common for the forest to send an animal to him, so he paid little heed to its sleek black body as it got closer and closer. He only first began to panic when the tiny snake bared its fangs and lunged for his leg, but by then it was too late and Draco fell from the log as his muscles began to atrophy and his breathing started to slow.

Blackness enfolded him as he laid flat on his back looking up at the stars through the forest canopy, and he rasped Harry's name into the night sky before the dark took over his vision.

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"We told him you'd been coming here and he asked for us to kill him," came a tiny hissing voice beside his ear.

Draco opened his eyes and turned his head to see the same black snake that had bitten him fill his sight. "You bit me," he groaned, rubbing the swollen place on his ankle where the fangs had penetrated his flesh.

"You deserve worse," the snake hissed with half lidded eyes.

"How am I even hearing you?" Draco asked rather petulantly as he strove to sit up.

"You're hallucinating," the snake informed him.

"Am I dying?" he asked, poking at his flesh and looking more closely at the wound on his leg.

"You will if you don't listen to me," it hissed in a tone that Draco gathered to be unfriendly.

"But you said you're a hallucination, which means I would really be listening to me," he replied, feeling more confused than normal. He didn't know if it was the venom, or the snake talking to him from a few paces away that brought on the confusion, but he didn't like it.

The snake bared its fangs and Draco put up his hands in surrender. "Our Nix is dying," he told Draco. "And if he dies our wood will die."

His eyes widened and his breath sped up. "He can't. Harry can't die, he's immortal!"

"He's been wounded too severely by his heartache and he's begging to be taken underground, buried in silent and permanent death," it hissed in reply.

"Just don't listen to him!" Draco shouted.

"We must, we can only delay his passing for so long while he ruins our forest. The closer you get to his glade the bleaker things become. The trees are dying, the plants no longer flower, the surrounding waters have all but dried up," the snake informed him as it bobbed back and forth.

"But you said that if he dies, you'll die too," Draco reasoned.

"If he dies of this grief, we will all perish, but if we take him into our womb, we can thrive again on the magic he'll provide us," the snake replied.

"So what, you're telling me that there is no hope, I'm going to lose Harry forever!" Draco exclaimed, his gritting teeth holding back the sob that wished to be wrenched from his throat.

"You are his only hope. You need to listen to your heart, let it lead you to the Nix," it hissed.

"I've been trying," Draco whined, pulling his knees up to his chest. "I've tried every night over the last six years and still you deny me."

"You choose what is easy, you chose what is pretty and soft and sweet," it hissed, as if lecturing him.

"Of course I do, those are the things I think of when I think of my Harry," Draco rebuked. "He doesn't live in an ominous wood with thorns and underbrush, he lives in a glade, beautiful and pure with sparking light and blooming flowers."

"That was before you banished him from your life. Now he lives among a tower of thorns and his forest is dying all around him and he knows nothing of it. He's oblivious to the pain of the wood because of the pain in his own heart."

"So I choose the dark path, the one that will rip my clothes and scratch my flesh and cloak me in darkness?" Draco asked, somewhat disbelieving.

"You choose the path that is most difficult, because the road to true love is never easy, and you, choosing to love an immortal being of nature is so much harder than most," it hissed in reply and Draco understood.

He sighed and nodded, wondering what would come next when the wood separated, as it had hundreds of times before and gave him three options.

Taking a deep breath he stepped onto the path that was darkest and filled with underbrush. He winced against the ambush of scratching branches and sinking mud beneath his feet. It felt like miles as the trudged along, imagining Harry's face as a beacon ahead of him, guiding him along.

When he started to see the edge he closed his eyes, hoping that he wouldn't see the Manor at the end of the path as he had so many times before. What he did see surprised him though, and he wasn't sure what to do about it.

In front of him, blocking him from moving any further was a towering hedge, its branches were coated in thorns and it appeared to be at least a meter thick. He had no idea how to get through it, and saw no way around it.

"Harry!" he called, trying to project his voice through the wall. "Harry, please let me in!"

The wall rumbled and shook before him and after a moment parts of the branches began to fall away, creating an arched opening.

As Draco stepped through it was like entering a new world. The faerie glade still shined brighter than the wood behind him, though the luster was not as he had remembered from years before. The grassy meadow shimmered in the moonlight and led up to the bubbling crystal spring, and in the middle of it all was Harry.

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Authors Note: so, as I'm sure you've been noticing, I'm falling slightly behind on the updates because with the holidays I have had much less time to write, but I'm on it, and I promise to update as quickly as possible. Harry and Draco snowglobes for everyone!


	11. The Final Choice

Authors Note: Many thanks to my beta Shannon for her work on this fic. Also, if anyone would like to know about updates and/or new projects you can find me on Facebook or my Yahoo Group (see my profile for details). Also (and this is the last Also I swear) for those of you who haven't already noticed, I posted two new stories -Becoming & Trophy. You should check them out because they are already new favorites of mine.

Chapter 11 The Final Choice

Draco nearly gaped at the sight before him. After six arduous and lonely years, there was Harry was sitting on his shimmering black rock in the center of the pool just staring across the glade at him. He had his legs pulled up to his chest and his arms wrapped tightly around them while his jet-black hair fell around his pale body like a velvet cloak.

The emerald eyes of his former lover bore into him like a unicorn impaling his skull and Draco stepped forward into the glade. At once the arched opening he had been permitted to walk through transformed, the thorny branches knitting back together into a solid wall once more.

He turned to Harry, letting his eyes show the damage that the years apart had caused him and when he spoke, his words wavered with his fear of rejection. "I thought I'd never see you again," Draco whispered.

"You were never meant to," Harry called back over the water, his voice twisted and angry; not bell-like at all.

"I've been searching for you all this time, hoping I'd find you so that I could tell you how much I miss you," he replied, trying not to let Harry's anger shake him away from his reason for being there. This might be the only time he had to show Harry how he felt.

"What is it you miss most? Stringing me along while you plan to marry someone else or falsely accusing me of seducing your arse of a father?" the Nix replied bitterly.

Draco winced but nodded, feeling it was a fair argument. "I was behaving childishly," he admitted. "But I'm different now, I've learned from my mistakes. I've grown," he said at last.

"So I see," the Nix muttered, gesturing to his state of general disrepair. "And what have your measly six years and facial hair taught you, Draco?"

Draco made to stride forward to the edge of Harry's pool, but clearly the Nix was not amendable to that idea and Draco soon found himself suspended upside down by a strand of ominous looking vines. He sputtered and begged to be released but instead the Nix simply leapt from his rock in a gracefully fluid movement and stood next to where Draco dangled only a few meters from the earthen floor.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't simply erase your memory and send you back to the manor?" Harry asked, walking in circles around Draco's body so that he had to twist uncomfortably to keep eye contact.

"I never want to forget you. Even if you reject me and leave me alone to my miserable existence, I still would prefer to remember you, Harry," he replied with an edge of panic in his voice. He knew that Harry held the power to do just what he said and he didn't know what frightened him more – the idea that he might never kiss Harry again or the idea of never being able to remember the first kiss.

"Stop calling me that," the Nix growled. "I am not yours to name."

"You were once and I would will it so again. Harry, I love you, please," he begged. "I'll do anything to prove it, anything to show you that you are my one and only."

Before Harry could answer the forest shifted and rumbled around them. Trees swayed in the wind as if some immense storm approached and the water quivered as if a mighty troll were walking nearby.

Crimson and golden leaves fell to the ground below Draco, creating a welcoming berth to lay his heavy head. The vines twirled and released their hold on Draco's legs, much to the Nix's chagrin and the pale blonde fell to the ground, held aloft only by the bed of gemstone leaves.

Immediately Draco's eyelids felt heavy, as if six years of not enough sleep was finally catching up to him in one fell swoop. He tried to fight it, but the need for slumber nearly suffocated him. He reached a hand out to Harry, who looked slightly panicked and confused. "Don't let them take me," he pleaded and Harry's eyes shone with a fierce defiance.

"I won't," Harry promised just in time to watch Draco's eyelids flutter shut and his breathing change to the familiar quality it would get when the blonde was in a deep and restful sleep.

"What did you do to him?" the Nix demanded of the wood, turning and glaring at each tree in turn.

The wind whistled and whipped his hair around him in violent flicks. He heard words on the breeze like a lover's whisper telling him that they did what they had to do.

"You have no rights to the boy. He's mine!" Harry shouted, all of his anger and bitterness falling away in the face of Draco's danger. He had seen the wood take humans in sacrifice before, but it had been ages. He wouldn't let them take Draco into their womb; he wouldn't let them absorb all of his magic to selfishly replenish the forest, he would rather sacrifice himself.

"If he is yours, than claim him," hissed the black snake that had spoken to him before.

The Nix sighed and stared into the aged face of his love. "I'm not sure if I can. I'm not certain I can accept another heartbreak when the first has not yet mended."

"You give us little choice then," the slithering obsidian creature responded. "We will give the boy one last test, and you should hope he passes it without assistance."

Harry growled, his voice reverberating through the glade and sending a shiver through the wall of thorns. "You shall regret it if you harm even a hair on that boy's head," he promised.

"We shall take our chances," the serpent replied with a hiss that sounded too much like laughter, and then he moved quickly back into the spring pool and out of Harry's sight once more.

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The golden light that had been streaming into the glade gave way to black so pitch that Draco could not see his own hand in front of his face. He got a sense as though he was standing, but he couldn't feel the ground beneath his feet. There was no movement of air, not even a faint breeze around him and there was something else off-putting and unusual about where he was, and it was quickly apparent that it was because this place held no scent.

It was void of anything sensory and that fact made Draco shiver in fear. "Where am I?" he asked to the dark, but his voice made no sound, just a shifting of emptiness in an already vacant world.

A spot of color appeared then, and if Draco had been able, he would have laughed. Black against black approached him as if a shadow were able to slither. He recognized the serpent from the wood; not by his shimmering scales but rather it's piercing yellow eyes, which were the only color in the dark.

Behind him the world began to shift and fill in and Draco could see the forest as it was, dying and begging for help. Everywhere he looked, Draco could see rotted wood and parched plants as if the forest behind the manor was becoming a desert.

"Your choices are beginning to grow slim," the snake hissed, the sound making the tiny hairs on the back of Draco's neck stand on end. "We have little time left, and you have turned our Nix into a petulant child. He's become as stubborn as you it seems."

"I apologized but he wouldn't hear it," Draco sighed, happy that his voice was making a sound at last, though it still sounded hollow in his own ears. "He hates me."

"Which is why we interfered," the serpent replied. "You have two destinies before you, young Malfoy. Both will bring peace to the wood, but only one will bring that to you as well."

"Well clearly I want that one," Draco replied with narrow eyes. "Why do you continue to toy with me, why not just tell me what to do?"

"Would you curse yourself to an immortal life even though the Nix no longer loves you?" the serpent asked, ignoring Draco's question. "Or would prefer a swift and painless death?"

The words fell onto Draco's ears like a grim reaper's sentence being dolled out. He loved Harry more than anything and the opportunity to live forever with him would be nearly impossible to turn away. On the other hand, it was clear that Harry no longer loved him, and seemed to rely only on bitterness and anger. Could he live another hundred years in the pain that he was experiencing now, could he live a thousand? A forever of affliction seemed like a very long time. Wouldn't death be final and sweet in comparison with the torment and anguish he had been feeling for the past six years?

"I don't know," Draco admitted. "Neither seems like an ideal option."

"You have only a short time to think on it," the snake replied. "Just call out your answer when you have decided and we will hear you. If you say nothing than a decision will be made for you."

With that the serpent left, slithering away into the rotted wood and the color and images Draco saw began to fade with him until around him was nothing but pitch and emptiness once more.

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Harry watched Draco's sleeping form and started to worry even more than before. He looked like an angel, seemingly at peace and only dreaming of sweetness and fluff, but the Nix knew better and he knew his wood well enough to know when it was up to no good.

He let the innate part of himself –the part that allowed him to communicate with nature- flow out of his body like vine tendrils reaching for the sunlight. He sought through his glade and past, his body going rigid when he felt the death of the earth beyond his thorny wall. With renewed determination he pushed past and felt the sickness of the forest spread wider and wider.

How had he not noticed this before? How had he remained oblivious to his forest dying all around him?

"You see now why we must resort to such drastic measures?" hissed a familiar voice. He wasn't sure why the wood had recently adopted this serpent form but he was beginning to feel like Adam.

"Why didn't you tell me?" the Nix asked, his voice livid and wavering with his anger.

"We tried but you had no mind for anything but the boy," the serpent replied.

"I would have done something," the Nix protested, his entire body shaking with the rage and grief he felt upon feeling the death of his home.

"What could you have done with your heart so broken and shattered? You've been useless to us, Nix. You've been a cancer we've contained here in the glade and even that is beginning to lose its luster," the snake chastised.

"So, now what? You kill Draco to preserve it?" Harry demanded.

"If that is what it comes to, yes," the snake replied, and it was clear that the forest had no qualms with taking a human life in payment for the renewal of the wood and glade. "He has strong magic within him, and either way he will help us grow back to what we were and flourish beyond even that."

"What do you mean either way?" Harry asked, confused with what the wood would mean by that.

"All will reveal itself in due time, my son," the snake replied and slithered away once more.

Harry slumped beside his sleeping love and stared at him, willing him to open his eyes. His Draco looked different, older and more worn than when he had left. He ran his fingertips softly along the darkened skin beneath Draco's eyes and mourned for his lost years, years that he could have been by the boy's side.

All the love he had ever felt came rushing back to Harry in that moment and he knew he could not let go of the cherished blonde so easily. He called out for the serpent to come back, but he got no answer, in fact the glad had gone deathly quiet.

Just as he moved away to investigate, a movement from Draco's leafy bed caught his eye. It took him a moment to realize what was happening and the panic set in making his immortal heart thud violently in his chest.

Slowly but surely Draco was sinking, or rather being pulled, into the bed he rested upon. Harry lunged and tried to pull him back up to the surface but the force dragging Draco under was far stronger than his own. With pained cries, Harry scrabbled at the leaves, trying to shove them aside and unbury his love, but it was no use, for by the time the leaves began to blow away in the breeze, Draco had already been swallowed into the ground.

Falling to his knees Harry cursed the forest and screamed his grief into the open air. A tear fell from the eye of everyone close enough to hear the sorrow ridden howl. At last, completely spent, Harry collapsed to the ground and curled in on himself, willing the forest to finally let him perish.

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Authors Note: I know it's been a while since I updated this story, and here I am leaving you with yet another cliffhanger. I'm evil, I know. I've made peace with that. *wink


	12. And on the seventh day goddess created

Authors Note: Many thanks to my beta, Shannon, and here we have the end of yet another story! Wow! I can hardly believe it, but here it is! I love you all and I'll see you on the next fic!

Chapter 12 And on the seventh day goddess created Draco

Harry sat in a daze, staring out into the open forest glade. The shimmer was back and everything seemed as though it has been coated with a thick layer of sugared icing. The leaves were vibrant crimsons and gold, the spring was a glittering surface teeming with metallic jewel toned fish and everywhere he looked life sprung forth and the forest blossomed.

It made him nauseas.

Not that feeling physically ill was the normal reaction to such a wonderful outcome, but the only place Harry looked that was not new and flowering was the pile of soft leaves that had sucked Draco into the forest's earthen womb.

His eyes were barren of tears, as he had already filled his pool with as much as his fragile body had, but still the forest kept his Draco away from him. Blackened rings formed beneath his eyes as rest evaded him night after night and still his pale lover remained missing. No music was powerful enough to make him dance; neither the melody of the wind nor the harmony of the flora could pull him from his saddened state.

Every second that passed tolled like a death knell in his ears, counting of every moment spent bereft of his true love. The minutes never sped up; never let him have the quiet relief of knowing that his life of sorrow would soon be over. They never slowed, indicating that he had not yet dropped into a hallucinatory state where he might be permitted to forget his love. No, time was certainly no friend of that immortal as he lay curled upon his rock and pleaded to die.

The grief was unbearable and he had ground most of his fingers into nubs by scraping them over and over on the same roughhewn stone. His hair remained lank and brittle because he refused to enter the soothing pool, which also made his skin begin to crack and parch under the harsh afternoon sun.

For seven days he remained that way, weeping his plea for dissolve like a chant. "Let me die."

The forest was stronger willed that he, however, and tended to ignore his whimpers and moans. Every once in awhile a wind would stir the leaves, now a makeshift cemetery, and cause Harry the misgivings of hope, but then the wind would falter and the leaves would go back to their unanimated state once again.

It had happened far too often for the Nix to notice anymore, and on such an occasion the wind stirred a cluster of leaves into a whirling tornado but Harry didn't bother to alter his gaze. He remained staring off into space, his eyes unfocused and his mind unfettered until he heard a rumble in the ground below. He looked up with a start, his eyes honing in on Draco's grave and the leaves began to part as the ground began to shift beneath them. Earth moved, trees shook and Harry quaked in his own skin wondering what new torture goddess had in store for him.

A light erupted from the hole so brilliant that Harry had to blink against it and then finally look away. With his green eyes carefully shaded he turned back wondering what he might be forced to look upon and gasped, nearly falling over in place at the sight.

There, raised from the ground like a shining pale beacon was his love, his light, in glowing ferocity. Everything sparkled and shimmered off of his milky white flesh and the unkind years he had accrued since they parted had vanished. Long silken hair fell down his body like fine woven clothes and his cheeks flushed the palest of pinks.

Harry dove into the water feeling it heal his flesh and quench his mind and when he emerged, the floating beacon was gone, replaced with a boy made of shimmer faerie flesh.

Immortal.

He could tell from the scent of him, the very way Draco now tasted in the air. When he grew nearer he could feel the spark of energy erupt and coat his own skin. He dove for the boy, scooping him up in his arms and caressing the strange yet familiar body against him, running a finger over Draco's luminous lips he smiled when the boy stirred.

Feather soft eyelashes fluttered against pale lids and with a whispered name, Draco opened his sparkling gray eyes to look out at the world for the first time in his immortal life. Relief washed over Harry in a tsunami wave and when the boy's eyes focused on him, a smile curled both of their lips.

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Harry.

The word cam unbidden to him and he realized at once that it was a name, but not his own. When emeralds swam to the surface of his vision surrounded by the most beautiful face he'd ever seen he knew the name belonged to him.

"Harry?" he whispered softly, noting the bell-like quality of his voice.

The man's smile filled his heart with an ache that refused to subside and when the boy leaned down to capture his lips, the world around them faded away. Pulsating power radiated up and through him, coursing through the ground below and energizing the very air he breathed. He could feel distant plants awaken and trees bend their limbs toward them as their kiss awakened a slumbering forest.

Fingers twined into his hair and a fire burned in his gut as Harry pulled him near and a warm hand wandered over exposed flesh until it rested on his delicate waist. The feel of Harry's tongue, probing and tasting made his entire body shiver as the pleasure took hold and his body instantly reacted.

Harry groaned into his mouth and he could feel the sweet pulse as Harry pressed his growing length between their bodies.

"Draco, my Draco, how I've missed you," Harry whispered against his ear.

Draco. That was it, his name. Little dragon his mother had called him. Draco Malfoy, the name of a human, not this new enchanted body, but Harry wanted Draco, so Draco he would be. As Harry's fingers caressed him, flashes of his human memory came back to him. Heated exchanges between the two of them, their first kiss, the night he threw Harry out, all leading up to the evening he was lead back into the glade and given a life changing choice; stay or go, eternity chasing after Harry or forever in the ground. In the end the decision had been easy. Even though his Nix was angry with him, he would have a very long time to win him back. As he looked into the hooded green eyes of his love, he knew he had made the right choice.

"I'm yours," he moaned, clutching Harry's hips and rocking him closer. As soon as he said the words he knew them to be true. He belonged to the Nix and the Nix belonged to him.

A hungry glint sparkled in Harry's emerald eyes and he took what was his.

Draco gasped at the first hint of intrusion, but as Harry slowly and carefully entered him his world became a buzz of pins and needles, sharpening his senses into a wild and exotic dimension. Thrust after thrust made Draco writhe and arch, trying to make every inch of his skin graze Harry's. His breathing became ragged and his heart rate sped until only a hummingbird's wings might beat faster.

When Harry's nimble fingers closed around his engorged heat, the sensory overload became too much. Crying out Harry's name, Draco came in a hot rush of fluid while his lover exploded inside of him with his own orgasm before slowing and gathering Draco in his arms.

"Never leave me," Harry whispered against their sweat-slicked bodies.

"Never," Draco promised, wrapping himself completely around his lover like a pale and pulsing cloak.

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Immortality suited Draco.

His skin had a sheen to it that in human for it had never had, his eyes seemed to glow like a storm cloud just before lightning stuck and his body was lithe and agile. Harry had taken back the numerous curses he'd placed on the land when they returned Draco to him in this form. His lover seemed to have all of his memories from his human form, only details fogged quickly as the days passed by.

Their nights were spent making love under the stars, while mornings found them drinking in the dew that coated their smooth skin upon the breaking of dawn. They would visit the outskirts of their forest during the day, flitting between trees and spreading their magic to the wood to help it grow and every evening they would bathe in the sparkling pool, or play music for the passing fauna of the glade.

Draco quickly found that his favorite form outside of the lithe humanoid form he most often took was that of sinewy dragon he'd seen in picture books as a small child. His body molded easily into whatever form he could think of and he enjoyed watching the proud joy that clouded Harry's features whenever he discovered something new about his immortal body.

One afternoon they were playing a game of tag –Harry was winning of course, as he was older and more experienced- and they ventured closer to Malfoy Manor then they had ever before.

The white marble that Draco recalled being so brilliant and shiny actually seemed dull and almost gray with his new sharper eyes. He paused in his stride to look across the vast green lawn and into the lush garden his mother had built there. He spotted the pale woman lingering by the rose bushes, her gaze unwavering into the line of trees where Draco stood.

He was compelled to go to her, though he knew not what he would say. Regardless his feet began moving the rest of him out of the thicket and toward the rolling lawn before a solid grasp on his wrist halted him.

Draco's breath quickened at Harry touch, as it always seemed to, but Harry shook his head and gestured to his own form, now clad in sapphire plumes, as he had been the first night he'd come to Draco's window as a tiny blue bird. Draco understood at once, for they rarely needed to speak aloud to get their thoughts across to one another, and he transformed his body in like, creating a wardrobe of iridescent scales in place of his nudity.

They walked together up to the house, Harry's hand never leaving Draco's wrist. He adored his lover's possessiveness and melted into the casual touch. White and ebony hair mingled in the wind as they strode purposefully toward Draco's mother, and as soon as they reached the wide-eyes woman, both men fell into a sweeping bow.

It seemed to take a moment for Narcissa to gain her breath, once she had she returned their bow with a deep curtsy of her own. "I was worried about my dearest Draco, but I see now that I shouldn't fret," she whispered, her eyes showing the awe that she must have felt at the sight of both Nixes' completely without glamour.

"I assure you he is well cared for, Lady Malfoy," Harry responded, his voice a twinkling melody.

"I see that," she replied, her hand reaching up to finger a lock of Draco's wild mane. "Oh, Draco, I thought you were the loveliest before, but now…"she voice trailed off as she gazed at her son with the daylight glittering over his scaly clothes and sighed.

"He's my mate. As I've always dreamed of," Harry whispered in return, seeming equally in awe of his beautiful lover.

Draco however knew he was different but felt the contrasting obsidian hair and pale flesh of his mate could never be surpassed and let his hand trail Harry's waist for a moment before refocusing on his mother.

"We can visit as often or as little as you like, mother. I'd like to see you again, though," Draco told her, smiling softly and gripping his lover's hip.

"I'd love that, Draco, Harry. You… you look so happy, both of you," she cooed and the boys could only nod, knowing that as a human, Narcissa couldn't begin to understand the depth of their devotion to one another.

With that he bid his mother farewell, letting her get acclimated to his new form and pulled Harry back to the wood, hand in hand.

As the forest shaded their bodies, they both lost the mask of clothing and Harry whirled quickly, pinning Draco against the nearest tree. "You are a lovely thing, my Dragon," he purred, letting his fingers trail along the blonde's jaw, neck and chest.

"Nothing compared to you, love," he gasped in return, his flesh burning from Harry's touch.

"Mmm," Harry moaned softly against Draco's mouth, flicking his tongue out to carefully dance just out of reach. "I adore you."

"And I, you," Draco replied, his breath coming in heated puffs as Harry's fingers dipped lower.

"Tell me then, lover," Harry asked, his mouth making hot wet trails below Draco's ear. "Will you be mine forever?"

A gasp exploded from Draco's lips as Harry's closed his hand around the throbbing pulse point between his legs and stroked at it tenderly.

"Always, eternity," Draco answered in a thick moan, feeling the ability for words leave him.

Harry took Draco's hand then, and wrapped it carefully around his own need and Draco watched as thick black lashes fluttered closed as the lust built between them. "I'm yours, and you're mine," he rasped as Draco began to stroke him at an even pace.

"Forever," Draco added before capturing the lips of his immortal lover, husband, and mate.

FIN

Authors Note: So another one bites the dust. Would anyone like a Harry and Draco Nix to make the wait for the next story better?


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